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 BY W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 
 
ALBERT R. MANN 
 LIBRARY 
 
 New York State Colleges 
 
 OF 
 
 Agriculture and Home Economics 
 
 AT 
 
 Cornell University 
 
 EVERETT FRANKLIN PHILLIPS 
 BEEKEEPING LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this bool< is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924087275040 
 
ADVANCED 
 
 BEE-CULTURE 
 
 ITS 
 
 Methods and Management, 
 
 BY 
 
 W. Z. HUTCHINSON, 
 
 EDITOR OP THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 
 
 Flint, Genesee Co., Michigan. 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 1902 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 aV ^ 5/ 
 
 HS THE RESULT of numerous 
 experiments in the use and non- 
 use of comb foundation, I was 
 led, four years ago, to the 
 writing and publication of a little book 
 entitled " The Produciion of Comb Hon- 
 ey." The main feature of this book was 
 the giving, in detail, of a method where- 
 by full sheets of foundation might be prof- 
 itably dispensed with in the brood cham- 
 ber when hiving swarms. Other impor- 
 tant points in the production of comb 
 honey were briefly touched upon. The 
 first edition (3,000) is now sold, and the 
 pleasant task of re-writing and revising 
 is now before me. 
 
 When the little book came out, one of 
 the criticisms brought against it was that 
 itinas too small. "Give us more,'' was 
 the cry then; and it comes to me yet. 
 Repeatedly have I been urged to write a 
 larger book, giving my experience and 
 views more in detail and upon other 
 points. Flattering as all this may be, I 
 doubt if I should have yielded to these 
 entreaties were it not that, as editor of 
 the Bke-Kbkpers' Review, I have, for 
 nearly four years, had the benefit of read- 
 
 ing, and studying over, special discus- 
 sions, by the most practical men, of the 
 most important questions connected with 
 our pursuit. [In other words, a large share 
 of the ideas to be found in the following 
 pages may also be found scattered 
 through the back volumes of the Re- 
 view. I have classified, arranged and, 
 condensed; giving what { consider the 
 ' ' cream ' ' of the discussions that have 
 appeared in the Review. The supply of 
 back numbers of the REVIEW will soon 
 be exhausted, and even those who possess 
 them will find it convenient to be able to 
 turn, in a moment, to a fresh, clear and 
 concise, yet comprehensive, resume of 
 the most important apicultural topics of 
 the day. So many more topics are 
 now taken up that the old title would not 
 be appropriate, hence it has been decided 
 to change it to that of Advanced Bee- 
 
 CUI<TURE; ITS METHODS AND MANAGE- 
 MENT. 
 
 The above was written about ten years 
 ago, when I got out the first edition of 
 this book, but at present I see nothing to 
 add to it. 
 
 W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Flint, Mich. 
 
j^^ ""^^N, 
 
 
ADVANCED BEE -CULTURE. 
 
 Care of Bees in Winter. 
 
 ■ -7 F THEY were properly prepared for 
 winter the preceding autumn, giv- 
 en plenty of good stores, properly 
 ^-^ protected out of doors, or placed in 
 a cellar or other repository having the 
 proper temperature, and precautions tak- 
 en against depredations by mice, bees re- 
 quire almost no care in winter. 
 
 No bee-keeper worthy of the name will 
 allow his bees to go into winter quarters 
 short of stores. They ought, at least, to 
 have enough to last them until the first 
 warm days of spring, when they may be 
 handled upon their summer stands, and 
 fed if necessary. A very disagreeable 
 job, indeed, is that pf handling bees in 
 the cellar, to learn if they are in need of 
 stores. Instead of flying to any great 
 extent, they crawl, up the operator's 
 sleeves, up his trouser's legs, from where 
 they have dropped upon the floor, and 
 down his collar and under his coat. They 
 buzz around the light, and, if an ordinary 
 lamp is used, many go down the chimney 
 never to return. Quite a good many drop 
 off on the floor, and are lost. If the bees 
 are wintered upon their summer stands, 
 and there comes a day warm enough for 
 them to fly, it is but little trouble to ex- 
 amine them for the purpose of learning 
 the amount of stores on hand. As a rule, 
 but little honey is used during the winter, 
 
 but when breeding commences towards 
 spring, stores disappear as by magic. 
 
 If by any hook or crook the bees have 
 gone into winter quarters short of stores, 
 and there are fears that some may be 
 starving, it is better that they be examin- 
 ed, and fed if needed, even though the 
 task is unpleasant. There need be no 
 hesitancy in thus disturbing the bees for 
 fear that it may do them some injuryj 
 for, as a rule, it will not. Probably the 
 best method of feeding bees in winter is 
 to give them a frame of honey. Perhaps 
 all the honey is in the hives, what shall 
 be done then ? It is we)i known that all 
 colonies do not consume the same 
 amount of stores. The variation is very 
 great, and by examining all of the colo- 
 nies, or a large number of them, the bee- 
 keeper can usually find combs of honey 
 that may be spared to furnish needy col- 
 onies with stores. 
 
 If some colonies must be fed, and no 
 honey is available, the best substitute for 
 honey is candy made of granulated 
 sugar. Put in sufficient water to dissolve 
 the sugar, then boil the syrup until it will 
 harden in cooling. To learn when to re- 
 move the candy from the fire, take out a 
 spoonful every few minutes and allow it 
 to cool. As soon as it begins to show 
 signs of hardening, draw the vessel con- 
 
Advanced beSe-cui^turiS. 
 
 taining it to the back of the stove where 
 it will boil slowly. Watch it carefully 
 and try it frequently. As soon as it is 
 sufficiently hard, remove it from the 
 stove and pour into shallow dishes to 
 cool. Be careful not to get it too hard. 
 If it is hard enough to retain its form 
 when pliced over a colony of bees, that 
 is sufficient. A thin cake of such candy 
 laid directly upon the frames over the 
 cluster of bees, and then the whole top 
 of the hive covered with a piece of enam- 
 eled cloth, and two or three thicknesses 
 of old carpet over that, will enable the 
 bees to ''hold the fort" as long as the 
 candy lasts. If for any reason it is im- 
 possible or undesirable to place candy in 
 this manner upon the tops of the frames, 
 the candy may be "run" directly into 
 empty brood frames, and the frames 
 hung in the hives adjoining the cluster 
 of bees. To fill a frame with candy, lay 
 it upon a smooth board with a piece of 
 paper under the frame, and pour in the 
 candy after waiting until it is as cool as 
 it can be and yet be made to "run." To 
 keep the frame down close to the paper, 
 so that the soft candy will not run out 
 while cooling, tack the frame down with 
 some wire nails driven through it into 
 the board. Have the nails just long 
 enough to hold the frame down nicely, 
 but not long enough to make it difficult 
 of removal. If a full frame of candy is 
 more than a colony needs, a less amount 
 may be given by tacking a cross-bar 
 in the frame, part way up from the bot- 
 tom, and filling the upper space only with 
 candy. 
 
 Henry Alley recommends the use of 
 "Good candy" for feeding bees in wixiter. 
 This candy is made by mixing pulver- 
 ized sugar and extracted honey until it is 
 of the consistency of a stiff dough. It is 
 almost impossible to get it too stiff. 
 When first mixed it may be quite hard, 
 but will be found quite soft and plastic in 
 a day or two. To place this candy in a 
 hive, tack thin boards upon one side of 
 an empty brood frame, covering one 
 whole side of the frame. The frame is 
 
 thus virtually transformed into a shallow 
 tray. Fill it with the soft candy, then 
 cover the other side of the frame with 
 thin boards, except a small space at the 
 top. In the opening thus left, the bees 
 can enter and carry away the food. The 
 frame of food thus prepared is hung in 
 the hive adjoining the cluster, with the 
 opening turned towards the bees. 
 
 The above methods of feeding are pref- 
 erable to feeding syrup, which is more 
 difficult to give and contains so much 
 water. If it must be used, let it be made 
 as thick as possible. 
 
 Mice sometimes do some little damage 
 both to colonies wintered indoors and 
 those in the open air. This damage is 
 confined principally to that of gnawing 
 the combs. If bee-keepers would only 
 remeinber that bees can pass through a 
 space that is less than % of an inch, and 
 that a mouse needs a space nearly twice 
 this, it would seem that there need be no 
 trouble in keeping mice out of hives. 
 Simply contract the entrance until it is 
 only yi of an inch the narrowest way, 
 and no mice can enter. This should be 
 done quite early in the fall, as cool, frosty 
 nights often drive the mice into the warm 
 retreat to be found inside a bee-hive. 
 When bees are wintered in the cellar, 
 many bee-keepers practice raising the 
 hives about two inches from the bottom 
 board; others remove the bottom board 
 entirelv. This allows plenty of ventila- 
 tion, but scarcely any escape of heat. 
 All dead bees and rubbish drop down 
 away from the cluster of bees, where they 
 dry up instead of becoming moldy and 
 rotten from contact with the warmth and 
 moisture of the cluster. If a colony does 
 die, the combs are left dry and clean, in- 
 stead of being stuck together with a mass 
 of damp, moldy, rotting bees. All who 
 have tried raising the hives in this man- 
 ner, are enthusiastic in its praise; but it 
 will be seen that this plan gives the mice, 
 if there are any in the cellar, free access 
 to the hives. 
 
 Dr. C. C. Miller heads off the mice by 
 the use of what he calls a reversible bot- 
 
Advanced b^e-ctJltur^. 
 
 torn board. It is simply a shallow box 
 (minus one end) as wide as the hive and 
 a little longer. In summer the flat side 
 is used uppermost. In winter the box 
 side is turned up, thus furnishing the de- 
 sired space under the bees. The open 
 end of the box is covered with wire 
 cloth having a mesh coarse enough to 
 allow bees to pass through, but shut out 
 mice. Every bee-keeper does not use 
 such a bottom board, perhaps would not 
 care for it, and then the best plan is to 
 keep the mice out of the cellar. If it is 
 of such a character that they can not be 
 shut out, then they must be trapped or 
 poisoned. For the latter purpose, I have 
 found nothing better than equal parts of 
 flour, white sugar and arsenic, mixed, 
 and placed in shallow dishes in different 
 parts of the cellar. 
 
 Unless the cellar is well under ground, 
 where it is well beyond the influence of 
 the outside temperature, it is well to keep 
 watch and not allow the temperature to 
 run too low in protracted cold spells. A 
 lamp stove, burned all night in a cellar, 
 will raise the temperature several degrees. 
 During the fore part of winter a low tem- 
 perature is not so dangerous as it is to- 
 wards spring, when brood rearing has 
 commenced. From 35° to 45° will do 
 very well until towards spring, when it 
 should not be allowed to go below 40°, 
 and may with safety go as high as 48° or 
 50°. In this connection it must be re- 
 membered that moisture has an influence 
 upon thfe effects of temperature. So far 
 as effects are concerned, a moist atmos- 
 phere is the equal of a low temperature. 
 If the cellar is moist, either raise the 
 temperature, or remove the moisture. 
 Unslacked lime in the cellar will absorb 
 moisture. Even when the influence 
 of moisture has been considered it 
 will not answer to tie ourselves to a 
 certain temoerature. It is the tempera- 
 ture inside the hives that affects the wel- 
 fare of the bees. If the colonies are 
 weak, their hives open, and the brood- 
 nest uncontracted, a higher degree of 
 heat is needed than with strong colonies 
 
 in close, well protected hives. Putting 
 colonies near the top of the cellar will 
 help matters some, as the air is warmer 
 there. The best guide in regard to this 
 matter of temperature is the behavior of 
 the bees themselves. If they are closely, 
 quietly and compactly clustered, there is 
 but little cause for alarm in regard to 
 the temperature. Quite a number have 
 reported excellent results by warming up 
 the bee repository to summer heat, say 
 once a week or ten days, if the bees be- 
 come uneasy towards spring. This en- 
 ables the bees throw off any surplus 
 moisture, and, as the temperature goes 
 down, they quiet down and remain so 
 tor several days, when they may be warm- 
 ed again. So long as the bees remain 
 quiet, I should not disturb them by arti- 
 ficial heat. If the cellar becomes loo 
 warm in the spring, before it is time to 
 remove the bees, it may be cooled down 
 by carrying in snow or ice, or the win- 
 dows and doors may be opened at night 
 and closed in the morning. 
 
 Years ago many bee-keepers practiced 
 taking their bees from the cellar, if there 
 came a warm day in the winter, and al- 
 lowing them to fly, returning them again 
 to the cellar, but this practice has been 
 pretty nearly abandoned. If the bees are 
 in a quiet, normal condition, it often 
 rouses them and sets them to breeding 
 in mid-winter, which is far from desir- 
 ■ able. If the food, temperature, and other 
 surroundings are what they ought to be, 
 such a flight is not needed. If they are 
 very faulty, such a flight will not save 
 the bees from death. 
 
 If bees out of doors are properly pro- 
 tected and have abundaut stores, they 
 need no care in winter, unless it is to see 
 that the entrances are not clogged with 
 ice, snow, or dead bees, when there 
 comes a day warm enough for them to 
 fly. If a rim two inches wide is put un- 
 der each hive when they are packed in 
 the fall, and an entrance made at the 
 upper edge of this rim, the entrance will 
 never be clogged with dead bees. 
 
Securing Workers for the Harvest. 
 
 ACH BEE-KEEPER ought to 
 s:^ thorougMy understand the hon- 
 ey resources of his own local- 
 ity. He should know when to 
 expect a honey flow. When the time 
 comes, the expected harvest may not 
 come, but the bee-keeper should be in 
 readiness for it. It is possible to have a 
 good honey flow and yet secure no sur- 
 plus, because there is not a sufficient 
 number of bees to gather it. Bees are 
 valuable when there is honey to gather, 
 at other times they are consumers. I<ess 
 populous colonies can be more success- 
 fully wintered in the cellar than out of 
 doors; while by proper protection and 
 care in the spring, such colonies can be 
 brought up to the requisite strength in 
 time for the honey harvest. If by such 
 management we are enabled to so reduce 
 our colonies in strength during the non- 
 producing time of the year that stores 
 are saved to the amount of from three to 
 five pounds per colony, we are well paid 
 for our trouble. 
 
 Rapid breeding late in winter or very 
 early in the spring is undesirable. Noth- 
 ing so quickly wears out bees as the rear- 
 ing of brood; and the more unfavorable 
 the conditions the greater the wear. It 
 is better that the bees should remain 
 quiet until warm weather furnishes the 
 most favorable conditions for brood rear- 
 ing, when the same expenditure of vital- 
 ity will produce two bees instead of one. 
 If the bees in the cellar are quiet and 
 show no signs of dysentery, don't allow 
 a warm day or two to tempt you to their 
 removal. Leave them in until either 
 honey or pollen may be gathered. Some 
 
 bee-keepers leave them until consider- 
 able later than this, and, if the bees are 
 to receive no extra protection when 
 placed upon their summer stands, this 
 course is advisable. But the bees are not 
 always quiet as spring approaches. The 
 character of their food may have been 
 such as to overload their intestines, and 
 unless they are soon allowed an opportu- 
 nity of voiding their fjeces, death will re- 
 sult, or their vitality will become so im- 
 paired that death will soon claim them. 
 Whether the bees are quiet or not, / 
 would carry them to their summer stands 
 as soon as there is pollen to be gathered, 
 and then I would protect them by some 
 temporary covering. 
 
 Aside from food in abundance, warmth 
 is the one thing needed to promote safe, 
 early breeding. An ordinary colony will 
 generate sufficient heat to enable the 
 bees to rear as much brood as they can 
 tend, the trouble is that so much of this 
 heat is lost by radiation. Unless there 
 is considerable brood present when the 
 bees are taken from the cellar, protection 
 is not needed very much at first — not un- 
 til a quantity of brood has been develop- 
 ed. I have learned from repeated ex- 
 periments that protection allows or en- 
 ables the bees to develop greater quan- 
 tities of brood; but I do not consider this 
 the greatest advantage of protection; 
 The point is just here: We often have 
 nice warm weather for three weeks. 
 The alders, elms and maples bloom, pos- 
 sibly the cherries, and all this has en- 
 couraged the bees to extend their brood 
 until the combs are well filled. Then 
 comes a cold "snap." The mercury 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 goes down to freezing, or nearly there, 
 and remains so several days; perhaps the 
 ground is covered by two or three inches 
 of snow — a veritable "squaw winter." 
 More than once have I and my bees pass- 
 ed through such experiences, and to our 
 sorrow. The cold drives the bees into a 
 compact cluster in the center of the hive. 
 Halt of the brood, perhaps more, is out- 
 side of the cluster, where it perishes. 
 The newly hatched bees, if any there are, 
 are tender, like a newly hatched chicken, 
 and easily succumb to the cold. The 
 old bees have lost their vitality in bring- 
 ing into existence the hive full of brood, 
 and the cold snap is the "last straw" 
 needed to send them to the bottom of the 
 hive. Weak colonies, in passing through 
 such severe weather unprotected, almost 
 invariably die. Ordinary colonies are 
 rendered practically worthless for the 
 season, and strong colonies are not im- 
 proved. Such low temperature does not 
 usually come so late in the season, but it 
 is liable to come any year; while "cold 
 snaps, " even if not so severe, come al- 
 most every spring; while the loss that 
 may occur from an unusually severe 
 spell of weather late in the spring, will 
 be sufficient to pay for the expense of pro- 
 tecting the bees each spring for several 
 years. Several times, when protecting 
 the bees in the .spring after taking them 
 from the cellar, I have left a few of the 
 most populous colonies unprotected. In 
 the early morning, or during cool days, 
 the bees in the unprotected hives would 
 be found closely clustered, while those in 
 the protected hives would be found 
 crawling actively about all over the combs, 
 and a puff of smoke would drive them 
 down an inch or two and expose large 
 quantities of sealed brood. When the 
 honey harvest came, a majority of those 
 protected were actually stronger than 
 those left unprotected. Some have com- 
 pared this packing of bees in spring to a 
 stimulant. It is not a stimulant, as we 
 understand the word. It simply confines 
 the heat of the bees, allowing them to 
 spread out and rear and protect larger 
 
 quantities of brood. Give them the 
 proper conditions for following their in- 
 stinct in the direction of brood rearing, 
 and no additional stimulus is needed. 
 
 If spring protection is so important 
 that it is advisable to pack the hives after 
 taking them from the cellar, it may be 
 asked, why not practice out door winter- 
 ing — then winter protection will answer 
 for spring, and the expense of a cellar and 
 of carrying the bees in and out will be 
 avoided ? In the iirst place, the saving 
 of stores in cellar wintering will pay for 
 the expense twice over; and, in the next 
 place, and of far greater importance, it 
 is only by the cellar method that the 
 wintering of bees, in a cold climate, can 
 ever be reduced to a perfect system. By 
 a selection of natural stores, or, better 
 still, by using sugar, we can secure uni- 
 formity of food, but it is only in the cel- 
 lar, or special repository, that uniformity 
 of temperature at a desirable point can 
 be maintained. Possibly our knowledgi 
 of wintering bees will yet become so ex- 
 tended as to enable us to keep them 
 breeding in the cellar, during the spring, 
 until all danger of blizzards is past, or so 
 nearly past that no protection will be 
 needed; but as the majority of us now 
 winter our bees, they become restless as 
 warm weather comes on, and, as a flight 
 in the open air, and a little freshly gath- 
 ered pollen, honey and water seem to act 
 like a charm, putting new life into their 
 veins, I believe it is better to put them 
 upon their summer stands as soon as pol- 
 len can be gathered in abundance, and, 
 as we almost always have "cold snaps" 
 after this, I would protect them. 
 
 Spring protection need not be an elab- 
 orate affair. Any old boards nailed to- 
 gether in the form of a box will hold the 
 packing in place. A box without top or 
 bottom, 2x3 feet in size, by 18 inches 
 deep, made of cheap, thin lumber, can be 
 set over the hives to keep the packing in 
 place. The lower edge of its front end 
 should rest upon the outer edge of a little 
 bridge placed in front of the entrance 
 and resting upon the bottom board of the 
 
lo 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTUrE. 
 
 Wve. The best of the lumber should 
 be picked out for making roofs; and, as 
 the front end of the packing box is rais- 
 ed several inches, the water will run off 
 at the back end. Dry sawdust makes 
 excellent packing; probably the best that 
 is easily obtainable. It seems to be pe- 
 culiarly adapted to absorbing and retain- 
 ing the heat given off by the bees, and 
 that received by the sun, and gradually 
 giving it off in times of need. It be- 
 comes, in short, a sort of caloric balance 
 wheel. With this method of packing, all 
 the extras needed are the little bridges, 
 the packing material and the rims; and, 
 if the latter are only slightly nailed, they 
 can be knocked apart and piled up snug- 
 ly out of the way when not in use; or, 
 by laying the two boards that are used 
 for the sides of the rim side by side, and 
 uniting them by tacking a strip of wood 
 across, they may be used as a shade- 
 board. The roof may be used as a shade- 
 board. To pack bees with this arrange- 
 ment, the sawdust is brought into the 
 yard in barrels upon a wheelbarrow. A 
 rim is set over a hive, then a barrel raised 
 up and sawdust poured over the hive un- 
 til it is well covered. Perhaps a bushel 
 or more of sawdust is used for each hive. 
 The cover is then put in place, and a 
 stone laid on to keep the wind from 
 blowing it off. The work can be done 
 more rapidly than one would suppose. 
 When the time comes for removing the 
 packing (which is not very much before 
 it is time to put on the supers), the cover 
 is taken off, the rim raised right straight 
 up from over the hive and carried away, 
 then the sawdust is shoveled up into a 
 barrel with a scoop shovel. 
 
 Mr. Heddonnow protects his bees in 
 spring, after taking them from the cel- 
 lar, by putting each colony into a box 
 made of thin lumber, and iilling the 
 space between the hive and box with 
 sawdust. The box has a bottom, is two 
 inches larger each way than the outside 
 of the hive, is painted dark red that it 
 may absorb the heat of the sun, and the 
 cover has a rim that shuts down over the 
 
 outside of the box like a chest cover. 
 When the hives are taken from the boxes, 
 the sawdust is left in the boxes, and they 
 are stored in a rain-proof building until 
 wanted another spring. Mr. Heddon 
 prefers packing not more than two inches 
 thick, asserting that more benefit is thus 
 secured from the warmth of the sun than 
 when the packing is thicker. 
 
 Quite a number of bee-keepers have 
 used and recommended double-wall hives 
 with no packing between the walls. 
 Protecting bees in the spring, in a simi- 
 lar manner, by simply setting a box over 
 the hive has been recommended. Sim- 
 ply an enclosed space cannot be so effec- 
 tive as though the space were filled with 
 some material like chaff or sawdust. If 
 there is no packing, the aii next the hive 
 is warmed and rises; that next the outside 
 wall is cooled and falls. In this way a 
 circulation is brought about by means of 
 which the hive is robbed of its heat. 
 Packing puts an end to this circulation. 
 Mr. Root, of Ohio, is experimenting with 
 a thin outer shell for use in winter in the 
 South, or in the spring at the North. It 
 is made of material only Y% of an inch 
 thick and dove- tailed, lock-jointed, at 
 the corners. He leaves only ^ of an 
 inch between the hive and outer case. 
 He also recommends, when necessary, 
 wrapping a long, wide, flat, thin cushion, 
 filled with chaff, around the hive before 
 the outer case is slipped down over the 
 hive. I consider the space for packing 
 too small. 
 
 Bees may be protected to some extent 
 by putting packing of some kind at the 
 sides of the brood-nest, inside the hives, 
 and putting chaff cushions over the brood 
 nest, or filling supers with chaff or saw- 
 dust and placing them over the hives; 
 but none of these devices are so effectual 
 as completely surrounding the hive with 
 packing. 
 
 Years ago, what was called stimulative 
 feeding was frequently practiced in the 
 spring, but it has been largely abandon- 
 ed. It is stimulation in the true sense of 
 the word, and often encourages brood 
 
ADVANCED BfiE-CULTURE. 
 
 rearing too early in the season. If the 
 bees are protected as I have recommend- 
 ed, the danger is greatly lessened, but I 
 can think of only one condition when it 
 would be advisable, and that is if the 
 honey flow should receive a check before 
 the main harvest begins. Brood rearing 
 should not begin until it can be carried 
 on uninterruotedly, and once begun, it 
 should receive no check. After brood 
 rearing is well under way, a stoppage in 
 the honey flow will put upon it a decided 
 check. Drones will be killed, and the 
 cells from which brood hatches will be 
 left empty. When the main honey flow 
 comes, there will be an insuSicient num- 
 ber of workers, and an empty brood nest 
 to fill. The bees will fill it with honey, 
 and that is about all they will do. To 
 have bees go into the sections and do 
 work that amounts to something, the 
 brood nest should be nearly one solid 
 mass of brood when the harvest opens. 
 To more perfectly accomplish this, some 
 bee-keepers change about the frames in 
 the brood nest, bringing the outside 
 combs, containing but little brood, into 
 the center, where they will be filled. 
 
 With a horizontally divisible brood cham- 
 ber this same object can be secured with 
 less labor by simply interchanging the 
 two sections, putting the lower one at 
 the top and the upper one at the bottom. 
 This divides the "globe" of brood in the 
 center, and brings the convex spherical 
 parts together in the center of the hive. 
 Nothing is gained by uniting weak colo- 
 nies, nor by taking brood from strong col- 
 nies to strengthen the weak. See that 
 all have good queens, abundant stores, 
 and are packed up snug and warm, then 
 if any uniting is to be done, wait until 
 just before the main honey harvest, when 
 brood may be \.a^^r\ from weak colonies 
 and used to bring some colonies up to the 
 standard that are a little lacking in num- 
 bers. As a rule, I don't approve of such 
 work; it is too much like robbing Peter 
 to pay Paul. Weak colonies can usually 
 be used to the best advantage in raising 
 extracted honey. 
 
 I have devoted considerable space to 
 this topic, because, unless our hives are 
 overflowing with bees and brood at the 
 opening of the harvest, there is little 
 chance of success. 
 
 >^^>P<^'g^^^4J'^^<^ 
 
 Bee Hives and Their Characteristics. 
 
 N "Bees and Bee-Keeping, " under 
 the head of " Hives for Bees, " Mr. 
 Frank Cheshire shows that external 
 ' -^ protection is essential; that, lacking 
 this, a crust or envelope of closely cling- 
 ing bees must be formed on the outside 
 of the cluster, thus forming a living hive, 
 inside of which it is possible to maintain 
 a temperature of 95°. This envelope or 
 crust would vary in thickness according 
 to the temperature. Upon our hottest 
 
 days it would break up altogether. By 
 furnishing the bees with an outer cover- 
 ing, the workers composing the ' ' living 
 hive " are released for other labors; but if 
 the hive is too large the bees cluster at 
 one side or corner, thus leaving one side 
 of the cluster exposed, over which must 
 be formed a protecting crust of bees. Mr. 
 Cheshire says: "It is true that hives 
 gather no honey, but in so far as they 
 effect the objects which have engaged 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 our attention, they are the cause of much 
 being gathered. " 
 
 These remarks of Mr. Cheshire natural- 
 ly introduce the question of the size of 
 hives. That the hive should be adapted 
 to the size of the colony, the season, etc., 
 is admitted by all, but as to how a change 
 in size shall be effected there is difference 
 of opinion. If the combs are very deep 
 it is impractical to change the size of the 
 brood nest, except laterally, and by the 
 aid of division boards; but this method 
 allows a most complete control of the de- 
 gree of contraction. Changing the size 
 of the brood nest vertically is practical 
 only with shallow combs; and the shal- 
 lower the combs the more perfectly can 
 this method of contraction and expansion 
 be managed. 
 
 For awhile before swarming time a 
 large brood nest is needed; larger, at 
 least, than is needed after the main har- 
 vest has come. As top-storing and tier- 
 ing-up are now almost universally prac- 
 ticed, and as bees work much more read- 
 ily in sections that are over the brood, it 
 is evident that a hive allowing vertical 
 contraction is the one for " contraction- 
 ists" to use. 
 
 If contraction is not to be practiced, 
 then there arises the question of what 
 size shall be the brood nest? Some plead 
 for a generous space, that the queen may 
 not be "cramped for room, " as though 
 this condition of affairs were very unde- 
 sirable and unprofitable. Were queens 
 expensive, this plea would be worth con- 
 sideration; but, as the capital is in the 
 combs, honey and hives, rather than in 
 the queens, the question as to which shall 
 be kept employed at the expense of the 
 other's idleness, needs no argument. If 
 the size of the brood nest is to remain un- 
 changed, then let it be of such capacity 
 that an ordinarily prolific queen will fill it 
 at the height of the breeding season, Let 
 the size be less than this, rather than 
 more. Eight Langstroth combs, or their 
 equal, will furnish sufficient room. 
 Many in arguing for large hives, mention 
 how much larger yields /«;- colony are se- 
 
 cured. True; but do they secure any 
 more per comb. Bee-keeping ought to be 
 viewed in a broad light. The question is 
 something like this: Here is an, area of 
 honey producing flowers, how shall we 
 secure the nectar with the least expendi- 
 ture of capital and labor ? Small hives 
 enable us to secure a more complete fill- 
 ing of the combs with brood, consequent- 
 ly more workers for the combs we have. 
 Small hives may cost a trifle more in 
 proportion to their size, than large hives, 
 but as an offset there is the greater ease 
 and quickness with which they are han- 
 dled. 
 
 Aside from a small brood nest, to secure 
 a more complete filling of the combs with 
 brood, or to lead to more rapid work in 
 the sections, there may be mentioned the 
 making of hives in such a manner that 
 they may be inverted. The masses have 
 not seemed to take kindly to inversion. 
 Like many new things, it was extrav- 
 agantly praised; but it is far from value- 
 less. Perhaps one reason why inversion 
 is not more generally practiced, is because 
 it has been discovered that, with a hive 
 having a horizontally divisible brood 
 chamber, the interchange of the parts ac- 
 complishes the same results as inversion. 
 
 In northern climates, bees need more 
 protection in winter than is afforded by 
 a single wall hive. In Michigan this is 
 best afforded by a cellar; farther south 
 some kind of packing is probably prefer- 
 able. Whether this packing shall be in 
 the shape of the so-called chaff hive, or 
 in something of a temporary nature that 
 can be removed in summer, is a point up- 
 on which bee-keepers differ. It is true 
 that temporary packing calls for extra la- 
 bor, and there was a time when it also 
 resulted in some untidiness and unsight- 
 liness in the apiary during the winter, 
 but the neat outer case and improved 
 methods of packing that are now being 
 adopted, have removed the latter objec- 
 tion, and greatly reduced the former. 
 These methods of temporary packing are 
 cheaper than chaff hives, while the ad- 
 vantage of having light, single-walled 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 13 
 
 hives during the working season, hives 
 can be picked up, handled, manipulated, 
 tiered-up, carried, if advisable, to a dis- 
 tant but more desirable location — hives, 
 in short, that can be handled in a way 
 that means business — all these advantages 
 are so great that I should never think of 
 adopting the chaff hive. I know there 
 are methods of management in which the 
 unwieldly, stand-still character of the 
 chaff hive proves no obstacle; but such 
 methods are not the most expeditious. 
 
 Speaking of the greater ease with which 
 an apiary can be managed when the bees 
 are in single-wall hives, brings up the 
 point of handling hives instead of combs. 
 Preventing after-swarming by moving 
 about the hives is an illustration. With 
 small hives, or those that can ^e handled 
 by sections, and in which the frames 
 are securely fastened, the queen may be 
 found by shaking out the bees instead of 
 going over the hives comb by comb. 
 When raising extracted honey, the su- 
 pers, with such hives, may be freed from 
 bees in a similar manner, just as they are 
 driven from a case of sections. It might 
 be mentioned here, parenthetically, that 
 the ' ' bee escape ' ' promises to destroy 
 this point of superiority hitherto claimed 
 for this style of super. When contract- 
 ing the brood nest, one section of the 
 hive is removed instead of taking out 
 combs and putting in "dummies." As 
 the eye of the physician judges of the in- 
 ternal conditions by external symptoms, 
 so the practiced eye of the bee-keeper can 
 easily determine the condition of a col- 
 ony without removing a comb. As a 
 taking apart and thorough examination 
 of the human body was necessary before 
 it was possible to learn to accurately 
 " judge of internal conditions by observ- 
 ing external symptoms, " so movable 
 frames allowed us to learn of the myste- 
 ries of the bee hive, and to reach that 
 stage when the taking apart of the brood 
 combs is seldom necessary. Such being 
 the case, hives that allow us the most 
 completely to accomplish our ends by 
 handling them instead of frames, are, 
 
 other things being equal, the most desir- 
 able. 
 
 THE NEW, HEDDON HIVE. 
 
 I have no hesitancy in saying that, in 
 my opinion, the new Heddon hive comes 
 the nearest to being the perfect hive, of 
 any with which I am acquainted. Just 
 think over the points I have mentioned, 
 and see how fully this hive meets the re- 
 quirements. It is at once the largest or 
 the smallest hive, by simply removing or 
 adding sections. There is no handling of 
 frames nor of "dummies " or division 
 boards. When the brood nest is contract- 
 ed, the supering surface remains the 
 same. None of the sections are left " out 
 in the cold " so to speak, with "dum- 
 mies " instead of brood underneath them. 
 The brood can be ' ' spread ' ' whenever it 
 it is desirable, by simply interchanging 
 the sections. No handling of combs in 
 the operation. The combs can be invert- 
 ed singly or a whole hive at one opera- 
 tion. It is a light, readily-movable, sin- 
 gle-wall hive, and its closed-end frames 
 make it particularly adapted to the estab- 
 lishing of out apiaries or the moving of 
 bees to secure better pasture. This hive 
 has often been recommended as an excel- 
 lent hive for raising comb honey. It is 
 equally as good when producing extracted 
 honey. The shallow frames are peculiar- 
 ly adapted to the tiering-up plan, which 
 is nearly as valuable in raising extracted 
 
14 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 honey as in raising comb honey. Supers 
 filled with shallow combs may be tiered- 
 up and left on the hive for the honey to 
 ripen, when they can be cleared of bees 
 as readily as a case of sections, handled 
 as easilv , and when in the honey house it 
 is only necessary to invert a super, loosen 
 the screws, slip off the case, and there 
 stand the combs all ready for extracting. 
 These shallow combs are uncapped more 
 readily than deep combs. 
 
 The dovetaii^sd hivk. 
 
 After the new Heddon, my next choice 
 of a hive is the so-called "Dovetailed" 
 hive, which is simply the I/angstroth- 
 Heddon hive with a loose bottom and 
 the corners "Dovetailed, "or lock-joint- 
 ed, hence the name "Dovetailed." It 
 is really an excellent hive, and for using 
 the hanging, open-end Langstroth frame 
 it probably has no superior. 
 
 Closed-end frames are having quite a 
 boom just now. Contrary to the belief 
 of those who have never tried them, they 
 can be handled even more rapidly than 
 the open-end frames. All kinds of 
 frames, unless it be those with metal 
 corners suspended upon metal rabbits, 
 must be pried loose with a knife or screw- 
 driver before they can be moved. After 
 they are loosened, one kind can be han- 
 dled, singly, about as fast as the other; 
 while three or four closed-end frames can 
 be taken up at one grasp. This cannot 
 be done with the open-end frames. Most 
 of bee-keepers call to mind the manner 
 in which the bees propolize the ends of 
 the top bars with open-end frames, and 
 then these bee-keepers proceed to im- 
 agine how much worse it would be if the 
 end- bars were in contact the whole or a 
 part of their length. They forget how 
 
 completely the closed-end bars, compress- 
 ed with a screw or wedge, shut the bees 
 away from those parts that would cause 
 trouble if propolized. 
 
 Muph has also been said of late in re- 
 gard to wide, deep top bars, placed at 
 fixed distances, for preventing the build- 
 ing of brace combs. While there is good 
 evidence that such arrangements accom- 
 plish the object for which they are used, 
 the fact still remains that queen exclud- 
 ers are needed, and the only satisfactory 
 manner in which they can be used is in a 
 honey board, hence I am inclined to the 
 belief that the honey board will hold its 
 own against the wide, deep top bars. 
 
 There are some minor points in hive 
 construction that may be noticed. For 
 shipping bees, or moving them from one 
 location to another, a fast bottom board 
 is an advantage; aside from this, all the 
 advantages, and there are quite a number, 
 are with a loose bottom board. As some- 
 thing must be fastened over a hive when 
 it is shipped, it is but little more work 
 to have the same fastening come down 
 and hold on the bottom board, hence 
 there is but little to be said in favor of 
 fast bottom boards. Beveled joints, 
 either at the corners of hives or between 
 stories, are being discarded so rapidly for 
 the plain square joint, that it is almost a 
 waste of space to condemn them. Cloths 
 for covering the frames are being quite 
 generally discarded, the cover to the 
 hive being made flat and brought down 
 to within "bee space" of the tops of the 
 frames. 
 
 While there will probably always be 
 users and advocates of large hives, of 
 chaff hives, and of hanging, open-end 
 frames, it is evident that the present ten- 
 dency is towards shallow, fixed frames, 
 small brood nests, and a system of man- 
 agement that requires but little if any 
 frame manipulation. With such hives 
 the bees must be wintered in the cellar, 
 or the winter protection be such that it 
 can be removed in summer. Such hives 
 allow the principle of tiering-up to be 
 carried to its highest perfection; con- 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 15 
 
 traction of the brood nest is equally per- 
 fect, the top of the brood apartment al- 
 ways being the same size; in short, such 
 hives allow of "short cuts," of a sort of 
 
 wholesale management that an attempt 
 to follow with other hives brings in a 
 whole lot of loose pieces and an endless 
 amount of manipulation. 
 
 ^i^^^=<^^^r^<^^^^^^<:^ 
 
 Honey Boards. 
 
 rITH the majority of frames 
 in use, bees build little bits 
 of combs between the top 
 bars of the frames, and ex- 
 tending the combs upwards, connect 
 them with the cover of the hive, or the 
 bottom of a case of sections, or whatever 
 is next above the tops of the frames. 
 These little bits of combs are called brace 
 combs, or burr combs. It is very unpleas- 
 ant, unprofitable and untidy to lift off a 
 case of sections, and, in so doing, pull 
 apart a network of combs that connect 
 the bottoms of the sections with the tops 
 of the brood frames. The honey drips 
 and daubs about and attracts robbers, if 
 there are any to be attracted. The bits 
 of comb must be scraped from the bottoms 
 of the sections, and the muss cleaned up 
 as best it may. 
 
 The bee-keeping fraternity is, I believe, 
 indebted to Mr. James Heddon, for the 
 modern honey board, which practically 
 does away with all trouble from brace- 
 combs. This honey board is simply a 
 series of slats fastened to a frame as large 
 as the top of the hive and placed over 
 the brood nest. These slats are about 
 5-16 of an inch thick, placed ^ of an inch 
 apart, and of such width and so arranged 
 that each opening between them comes 
 exactly over the center of the top bar of 
 a brood frame below. In other words, 
 the slats break joints with the top bars of 
 the frames below. As the tops of the 
 
 frames are ^ of an inch below the level 
 of the top of the hive, there is a ^ space 
 between the tops of the frames and the 
 bottom of the honey board. The outside 
 rim or frame-work of the honey board is 
 ^ of an inch thicker than the slats, thus 
 the surplus case is raised three- eighths 
 of an inch above the slats of the honey 
 board. In short, the honey board is a 
 series of slats three-eighths of an inch 
 apart, placed between the brood nest and 
 the supers, with a "bee space" both above 
 and below the slats. In the space below, 
 between the slats and the brood nest, the 
 bees build brace comhs just the same as 
 ever, but for some reason, the space above 
 is almost always left free from the dis- 
 agreeable brace combs. A case of sec- 
 tions can be lifted off as clean and free 
 from daub as when placed upon the hive. 
 
 ITG.2. 
 
 J5!rs.i. 
 
 WOODEN, QUESN-SXCLUDING HONEY 
 BOARD. 
 
 I once tried to make these slatted hon- 
 ey boards queen-excluding by placing the 
 slats exactly 5-32 of an inch apart. So 
 
16 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 far as excluding the queen from the su- 
 pers was concerned, they were a success; 
 the greatest drawback being the fact that, 
 when the slats were placed so close to- 
 gether bees filled the spaces between 
 them with hard wax. It is also some 
 trouble to place the slats exactly 5-32 of 
 an inch apart and fasten them in such a 
 manner that they will remain exactly 
 that distance apart. I next tried to make 
 a wood queen-excluder by substituting a 
 thin board (3-16 of an inch) for the slats 
 and then perforating it with a small cir- 
 cular saw exactly 5-32 of an inch in thick- 
 ness. Such excluders worked better, 
 owing, I think, to their being thinner; 
 still, the bees plugged the perforations to 
 such an extent that it became necessary 
 to clean out the hard wax each spring. 
 
 The G. B. Lewis Co., of Watertown, 
 Wis., is now making an all- wood queen- 
 excluder similar to this ; the only differ- 
 ence being that the perforations are made 
 across the grain. If some enterprising 
 manufacturer will invent a machine to 
 countersink the openings, that is, cham- 
 fer oif the wood around the openings un- 
 til the edges are only about 1-16 of an 
 inch in thickness, I believe that in this 
 manner an all-wood queen-excluder could 
 be made a success. It is my opinion that 
 across the grain is the proper direction in 
 which to make the perforations. The 
 edges would be less likely to be injured 
 or to be gnawed by the Dees 
 
 WOOD-ZINC HONEY BOARD. 
 
 At piesent, the best queen-excluding 
 honey board is the wood-zinc. It is sim- 
 ply the Heddon slatted honey boardwith 
 
 saw kerfs in the edges of the slats, and 
 strips of perforated zinc slid into the 
 kerfs, between the slats. To Dr. G. L. 
 Tinker belongs the honor of having been 
 the first to introduce strips of perforated 
 metal, in this peculiar manner, between 
 the slats of the Heddon honey board. 
 
 Whole sheets of zinc have been used as 
 honey boards. The greatest objection 
 seems to be that such large sheets are 
 lacking in rigidity. They are likely to 
 sag, or bend, or kink, thus destroying 
 the perfection of the bee-spaces. If a 
 sheet sags, the space above becomes so 
 large that there is a likelihood of comb 
 being built therein; while the space be- 
 low becomes so small that propolis is 
 placed between the zinc and the top of 
 the brood frames. The wood-zinc honey 
 board is free from this defect. 
 
 During the last year or two there has 
 been an effort made to do away with 
 honey boards. It has been found that 
 wide, deep, top bars, accurately spaced, 
 have, at least, a great tendency to reduce 
 the building of brace combs. The spaces 
 between the top bars should be as near 
 5-16 of an inch as is practical. If greater 
 than this, the danger of comb building is 
 greatly increased; if less, there is a ten- 
 dency to plug the spaces with hard wax 
 — not comb, but hard, solid wax. With 
 the ordinary hanging or open end frame, 
 it is not practical to space the frames 
 suflficiently accurate to prevent the brace 
 comb nuisance; that is, not unless some 
 spacing device is used. Closed-end 
 frames are the best adapted to bring 
 about the necessary accuracy of spacing. 
 
 When there is any necessity for the 
 use of a queen-excluder, the only practi- 
 cal way in which it can be used is in the 
 shape of a honey board. In raising 
 comb honey there is little need of a 
 queen-excluder over an old established 
 colony, but when a swarm is hived in a 
 contracted brood chamber, and given the 
 supers from the old hive, a queen-exclud- 
 er is almost a necessity. In raising ex- 
 tracted honey, queen-excluders are a 
 great convenience. If they are not used. 
 
ADVANCED EEE-CUI/rURE. 
 
 17 
 
 the operator must always be on the look- 
 out for brood in the extracting supers. 
 Some combs will be found containing 
 only a little boood, yet they cannot be 
 extracted without throwing out some of 
 the brood into the honey. Some bee- 
 keepers, when they find brood in the 
 upper story, exchange the combs for the 
 outside combs of the lower story, if they 
 can find any such without brood, but this 
 takes time. To successfully conduct an 
 apiary, the fixtures and methods should 
 be such that the work will move along 
 smoothly and in a systematic manner, 
 without any "hitches." There is also 
 another point to be considered in con- 
 nection with the use of queen-excluders 
 
 when raising extracted honey, and that 
 is the freeing of the supers by the use of 
 "bee-escapes." If the super contains 
 several combs of brood and the queen, 
 it is doubtful if the bees could be made 
 to desert it by the use of the "escape." 
 If they did desert it, then something 
 would have to be done with the brood 
 when it was discovered. In short, ad- 
 vanced bee-culture has divided the bee- 
 hive into two distinct apartments — brood 
 and surplus; and unless this division can 
 be maintained, many profitable plans 
 must be relinquished. The queen ex- 
 cluding honey board enables the bee- 
 keeper to thus set a boundary, beyond 
 which the brood cannot go. 
 
 >^>P<^'S^'6^^l-^^<^- 
 
 Sections and Their Adjustment on the Hives. 
 
 NI/Y those who have kept a 
 dollar and cent account with 
 their bees, fully realize that 
 labor is the most expensive 
 factor entering into the cost of honey. 
 Let us suppose that a man cares for 100 
 colonies of bees, and by a series of crooks 
 and turns and complicated methods he 
 secures a good yield; a yield somewhat 
 increased we will suppose by the labo- 
 rious rrianipulation. Let us suppose still 
 further, that by improved methods and 
 fixtures he can manage 150 colonies 
 equally as well with no greater expendi- 
 ture of labor, it is evident that his profits 
 would be greater; they would be greater 
 even though the new departure did not 
 bring the yield quite up to that of the old 
 system. Of course, there is a limit to 
 the increase of colonies that may be 
 made on account of lessened labors re- 
 sulting from the adoption of improved 
 methods and fixtures, as the further we 
 
 advance in this direction, the nearer and 
 clearer looms up the spectral head of 
 "Overstocking." 
 
 But it is a pleasure to note that the 
 fixtures and methods of to-day are supe- 
 rior to those of a few years ago. In this 
 matter of sections and their management, 
 the plan of putting them on the hive and 
 taking them off one at a time has been 
 most completely discarded. A few bee- 
 keepers still manipulate them by the 
 wide frame-full, but the majority has 
 adopted some sort of a case or super by 
 means of which twenty-five or thirty sec- 
 tions can be handled at one time; and 
 with which "tiering up" may be prac- 
 ticed. The old, cumbersome, complica- 
 ted, laborious, side-storing system is laid 
 upon the shelf. It is perfectly safe to 
 say that "top storing" and "tiering up" 
 with some kind of a case, crate, or rack, 
 furnishes the best method now known 
 for securing comb honey; that is the only 
 
i8 
 
 ADVANCED BCE-CULTURE. 
 
 one that enables the bee-keeper to handle 
 a "honey shower" with perfect ease; 
 "rattling" the sections on and off the 
 hives in a rapid, business-like way. It is 
 true that "tiering up" has been condemn- 
 ed, but principally upon the ground that 
 the inability to easily and readily con- 
 tract the surplus apartment to less than a 
 whole case, results in a larger number of 
 unfinished sections at the end of the sea- 
 son. If this practice enables us to care 
 for more bees, and it certainly does, and 
 we thereby secure more finished honey in 
 the aggregate, why grumble, at the un- 
 finished work thrown in ? 
 
 For making sections, basswood is 
 probably used to a greater extent than 
 any other wood. It is the whitest readi- 
 ly obtainable in all parts of the country, 
 while it possesses the elasticity needed 
 in the one-piece sections. Its faults are 
 that it shrinks and swells badly, becomes 
 mildewed and discolored very easily, 
 and any honey dropped upon it soaks in 
 and leaves a stain. White poplar is the 
 best wood for sections. It is whiter than 
 basswood, very hard, does not shrink or 
 swell readily and is not s.tained by con- 
 tact with honey, or easil}' soiled by hand- 
 ling; but it lacks the elasticity necessary 
 in one-piece sections. There are no 
 handsomer nor better sections than the 
 four-piece white poplar; and the only 
 valid objection that can be brought 
 against them are that they cost more and 
 that more time is required in putting 
 them together. I am aware that I have 
 been pleading for time saving fixtures, 
 but there must be a distinction made be- 
 tween the hurry and bustle of swarming 
 time and the leisure of a winter's evening; 
 or between the time of an experienced 
 apiarist and that of some boy or girl who 
 can put together sections. The objec- 
 tions to the one-piece sections are that 
 they cannot be made of the most desir- 
 able wood, that, as usually made, they do 
 not remain "square" when folded, and 
 that they are made with "naughty" cor- 
 ners that sometimes gouge into the hon- 
 ey when crating it or removing it from 
 
 the crate. When separators are used the 
 latter objection is removed. The reason 
 why the so-called "naughty" corner is 
 always found upon the one-piece sections. 
 
 OI^D STYI<E, HEDDON CASE. 
 
 is because if the opening is cut clear 
 through to the side pieces, the small film 
 of wood left to hold top and side bar to- 
 gether is more likely to break. When 
 the openings extend clear across, as with 
 the four-piece sections, the combs are 
 more completely built out and attached 
 to the top and bottom bars. The top and 
 bottom bars of sections ought to be }i of 
 an inch narrower than the side bars. 
 Usually they are made too wide, leaving 
 too narrow openings between them. To 
 sum up the whole matter of sections, the 
 
 A T SUPER, 
 one-piece, although possessing some 
 faults, is cheaper and can be put together 
 quicker than the four-piece, which costs 
 more but \s faultless. My preference is 
 decidedly the four-piece. 
 
 *This cut does not perfectly represent the 
 Heddon case. It shows the sections ilush with 
 the top of the case, when they ought to be 
 shown "bee space'* below, as 'n the cut of the T 
 super A handle ought also to be shown on the 
 side. In the cut of the Heddon hive on page 13, 
 two cases filled with wide frames are Bhown 
 above the hive. 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE 
 
 19 
 
 If separators are not needed, there is 
 no kind of case or super better than the 
 old style Heddon case. It is cheap, sub- 
 stantial and perfect. If separators are 
 desired, there are two styles of cases be- 
 tween which to choose: the T super and 
 wide frames one tier of sections deep and 
 placed in a case. The only advantage 
 possessed by the T super, as compared 
 with the Heddon case, is that it allows 
 the use of separators; while wide frames 
 protect the outside of the sections, and 
 for some reason, their use also lessens the 
 proportion of unfinished sections. The 
 bees follow the frames begun on out to 
 
 the ends, before spreading out laterally 
 when the flow is not abundant, so that 
 three or four frames are sometimes en- 
 tirely filled while those outside are scarce- 
 ly touched. 
 
 To sum up: if separators are not need- 
 ed, the old style Heddon case is excellent; 
 if they are desired, the T super will allow 
 their use ( wooden ones are preferable in 
 the T super), and the cost is much less 
 than for the wide frame case, which, with 
 tin separators, is the most perfect method 
 of adjusting sections on a hive, its only 
 drawback being its cost. 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^<:^ 
 
 Varieties of Bees. 
 
 ■ N ORDER to give an intelligent an- 
 swer to the query : "Which are the 
 best bees ?" it is necessary to con- 
 sider the locality in which they are 
 to be kept, also the purpose for which 
 they are to be used. For instance, the 
 Syrians are great breeders. So long as 
 there is a drop of honey in the combs, 
 they rear brood. In climates blessed 
 with Winter's frosts and snows, this is an 
 undesirable tra;it; but in sunny Cuba, 
 where the honey flow comes in the sea- 
 son corresponding with our winter, this 
 very characteristic proves of value in se- 
 curing populous colonies at the beginning 
 of the harvest. These same Syrians also 
 fill the cells so full of honey, and cap it 
 so poorly, as to give it a peculiar, dark, 
 watery appearance. In raising extracted 
 honey this is not objectional. The Cy- 
 prians have proved so fiery in disposition 
 that they have been almost universally 
 discarded. The Syrians have something 
 of the same style, only in a less degree, 
 and, in their purity, are not needed in 
 
 our Northern States. A few cling to 
 them when they are crossed with some 
 other variety, but I fail to see why, as 
 they have no good qualities, for this lati- 
 tude, not possessed by the Italians. For 
 this part of the country there are, in my 
 opinion, only three varieties of bees 
 worthy of consideration, viz., Italian, 
 black and Carniolan. As yet, the latter 
 is on trial. It must be admitted, however, 
 that the Carniolans are holding their own 
 very much better than any variety of 
 bees that has been introduced into this 
 country since the Italians were brought 
 here. They are very prolific. 
 
 A word right here about prolificness. 
 Undue prolificness is of no value — it is an 
 objection. Did queens cost large sums 
 of money there would be a shade of sense 
 in desiring those that are prolific; but, to 
 the practical honey producer, they cost al- 
 most nothing; and by using hives that 
 are not too large, queens of ordinary pro- 
 lificness will keep the combs sufficiently 
 filled with brood. In this matter of 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 brood rearing the Italians are unexcelled. 
 During the spring months they push 
 breeding with wonderful rapidity; but as 
 soon as the honey harvest begins in ear- 
 nest, breeding is greatly reduced. 
 
 It might safely be said that the Italians 
 are the standard variety of this country. 
 There seems to be about them a peculiar- 
 ly quiet, steady, energetic determination, 
 possessed by no other variety. When 
 honey is coming in slowly, and must be 
 sought for far and wide, it is then that 
 the Italians carry off the palm. For the 
 production of extracted honey they are 
 probably unexcelled; but to the producer 
 of comb honey they have two disagree- 
 able traits. They are loth to store honey 
 outside of the brood apartment, and fill 
 the cells too full of honey. Advanced 
 bee-culture, with its reversible hives, 
 comb foundation and "bait" sections of 
 partly drawn comb, have well nigh over- 
 come the first objection. The latter ob- 
 jection is not so easily removed, but 
 much can be done in this direction by 
 selection in breeding. It is well known 
 that, even of the same variety of bees, 
 there are greatly varying strains. When 
 a colony is found that stores and caps 
 its honey in such a manner as to give it a 
 watery appearance, replace the queen 
 with one reared from the egg of a queen 
 the colony of which shows the best work 
 in this respect. By continual care in 
 this direction, a bee-keeper who prefers 
 to have only pure Italians can secure a 
 strain that will do pretty fair work in 
 furnishing comb hone}' that is nicely 
 capped. 
 
 The blacks do not breed up so rapidly 
 in the spring; and unless the harvest is 
 very abundant the}- will not bring in so 
 much honey as will the Italians. But 
 once the nectar is in the hive they han- 
 dle it in a manner that is truly artistic. 
 They are willing to store their surplus in 
 the supers at a distance from the brood, 
 and in capping the honey they leave a 
 small space under the capping, between 
 it and the honey, which gives to the 
 comb an almost snowy whiteness. In 
 
 short, the Italians are the better field 
 workers; the blacks the better house keep- 
 ers. In this respect the Italians are like 
 man, while the Germans resemble wo- 
 man. To carry the simile still further, 
 they ought to marry. In plain English, 
 the producer of comb honey can secure 
 the best bees for his purpose, in Ihe quick- 
 est and easiest way by uniting the Ital- 
 ian and German varieties; then by con- 
 tinued selection retain the good qualities 
 and weed out the bad. It is practical to 
 do this without any mating of queens in 
 confinement. Simply rear the queens 
 from the best stocks; the drones ditto; 
 keeping the drone comb out of all unde- 
 sirable colonies; and giving some of the 
 choice stocks abundance. This will fill 
 the air with choice drones, and the 
 chances of a queen's mating with an un- 
 desirable drone will be very slight indeed. 
 
 As I have already said, for the produc- 
 tion of extracted honey, the Italians are 
 without a rival. Were it not for the 
 difficulty of dislodging them from the 
 combs, they would, for this purpose, be 
 well nigh perfect; and I might add that 
 the use of the "bee escape" promises to 
 enable us to overcome even this objection. 
 
 The admirers of the Carniolans claim 
 for them the possession of all the good 
 qualities of both the blacks and the Ital- 
 ians, with one or two additional virtues 
 thrown in. It is asserted that they are 
 the most gentle bees known; that they re- 
 main quietly on the combs when han- 
 dled, but are easily shaken off; that they 
 are industrious, good comb builders, 
 capping the honey very white, and using 
 but little propolis; that they are prolific; 
 hardy; and just perfection itself. But 
 we must not forget the disposition to 
 praise new things. Never until last 
 spring did I have several good, strong 
 colonies of Carniolans in the spring. 
 They certainly bred up the most rapidly 
 in the spring of an}' bees I have ever 
 tried, and I hoped to compare their hon- 
 ey-gathering qualities with those of the 
 Italians, but the season proved a failure — 
 not a pound of surplus was secured by 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTUKE. 
 
 21 
 
 any of my bees. Several of the Carnio- 
 lan colonies swarmed, while not a swarm 
 came from the Italians, and they do run 
 about upon the combs in a restless man- 
 ner, very much like the blacks. They 
 seem to be a little less saving of propolis 
 than is the case with other bees, and the 
 capping to their combs out-rivals in 
 whiteness even that made by the blacks. 
 I certainly think that the Carniolans are 
 worthy of an extended trial; but before 
 recommending their adoption on an ex- 
 tended scale, I should like to manage an 
 apiary of them for at least three or four 
 years. 
 
 In the production of extracted honey, 
 I know that the man who chooses a good 
 strain of Italians makes no mistake. A 
 cross between the Italians and blacks is 
 equally as good, but a little less delight- 
 
 ful to handle, while there is nothing to 
 be gained by the cross, as is the case 
 in comb honey production. If a bee- 
 keeper will use the proper hives and fix- 
 tures, and employ the proper methods, 
 he can make a success of comb honey 
 production with pure Italians; otherwise, 
 his success will be much greater with a 
 cross between the Italians and blacks. 
 
 Let no bee-keeper be caught by that 
 phrase, "general purpose" bee. The 
 bee-keeper who thoroughly understands 
 his resources, knows exactly what he 
 wishes to accomplish, and chooses the 
 best hives, the best bees, and the best 
 methods, to secure the desired ends, will 
 far out-strip the "general purpose" bee- 
 keeper, with his "general purpose" hives, 
 "general purpose" bees, and "general 
 purpose" methods. 
 
 ^*^^^^^^^^#A;f<r^ 
 
 Introducing Queens. 
 
 £y^ pN^O introduce a queen to a colony 
 of bees, two things must be well 
 considered — the condition of the 
 bees and the condition of the 
 queen. The condition aiid behavior of 
 the queen is very important. If the 
 queen will only walk about upon the 
 combs in a quiet and queenly manner, and 
 go on with her egg laying, she is almost 
 certain to be accepted if the other condi- 
 tions are favorable. Let her run and 
 "squeal" ( utter that sharp "zeep, zeep, 
 zeep,") and the bees immediately start 
 in pursuit. Soon the queen is in a ball 
 of tightly clinging bees, and the only 
 course is to smoke the bees severely until 
 they release the queen from their embrace, 
 when she must be re-caged for another 
 trial. Dropping the ball of bees in a cup 
 of water has been recommended to induce 
 them to release the queen. To the inex- 
 
 perienced this may be the better plan, as, 
 when driving away the bees with smoke, 
 it often happens that one of the bees will 
 grasp the queen and endeavor to sting 
 her, smoke or no smoke,and, in the at- 
 tempt to rescue the queen, a novice may 
 injure her. 
 
 To introduce a queen from one colony 
 to another in the same apiary does not 
 call for the skill needed when the queen 
 has been absent several days from a col- 
 ony, and is jaded by a long journey. I 
 have frequently taken a queen from a 
 colony, and caged it to send away, and 
 then immediately taken a laying queen 
 from a nucleus and placed her upon the 
 spot upon the comb from whence I had 
 removed the other queen, and had the 
 satisfaction of soon seeing her surround- 
 ed by a circle of admiring retainers. I 
 believe there are times, particularly when 
 
Ai3VAKCEt) BEE-CUl.TtJRfi. 
 
 honey is coming in freely, when a colony 
 with a laying queen would accept another 
 freSh laying queen, simply by having her 
 placed upon the combs; and all would go 
 well until the queens came in contact. 
 Then would be a conflict in which the 
 chances of the new comer would be equal- 
 ly as good as those of the old queen. I 
 have sometimes doubted if bees recogniz- 
 ed each other, or the queen, by the scent. 
 I have clipped a queen's wing, and, upon 
 returning her (placing her directly upon 
 the combs), she was attacked by her own 
 bees. Perhaps she acquired a different 
 scent by being handled. If so, then the 
 hundreds of other queens that I have 
 clipped must also have acquired a differ- 
 ent scent, yet they were not attacked. 
 
 So far as the queen is concerned, it is 
 important that she be brought before the 
 bees in a natural manner, in such a place 
 and in such a way as they would expect 
 to meet her. When clipping queens I 
 have replaced them by dropping them 
 upon the top bars, or at the entrance of 
 the hive, when the bees would immediate- 
 ly pounce upon them as intruders. A 
 puff of smoke would cause the bees to 
 " let up, " when the queen would walk 
 majestically down upon the combs, or in- 
 to the hive, as the case might be, and 
 here she would not be molested, because 
 the bees here found her where they ex- 
 pected to find their queen. When I wish 
 to introduce a queen by allowing her to 
 run in at the entrance, I first shake off 
 the bees, from two combs, in front of the 
 hive; as they are running into the hive, 
 I allow the queen to run in with them. 
 At such times as this there are no guards 
 at the entrance, the bees that are crawl- 
 ing in will not attack the queen, and by 
 the time the colony has recovered its 
 tranquility, the queen is quietly parading 
 the combs. 
 
 When a colony has been queenless long 
 enough to build a batch of queen cells, I 
 usually introduce a queen by simply tak- 
 ing a comb, with the adhering bees and 
 queen, from a nucleus and hanging it in 
 the queenless colony. By means of 
 smoke, or a feather, I drive all the bees 
 
 from the inside wall of one side of the hive, 
 and against this side of the hive I turn 
 the side of the comb upon which is the 
 queen. Thus she is not immediately 
 brought in contact with the excited, 
 strange bees; but the bees intermingle, 
 and, almost unconsciously, the whole 
 colony has accepted the queen. If any 
 of the queenless bees stray near the queen, 
 they find her surrounded by a cortege of 
 her own bees. She is also attending to 
 her duties, and is almost certain not to 
 be molested. When queeus come from a 
 distance they are more difficult to intro- 
 duce. They have not layed any eggs in 
 several days, and are in a jaded condition. 
 It is for this reason that it has always 
 seemed to me that the Peet cage ought 
 to be an unusually good cage with which 
 to introduce queens. This cage can be 
 attached to the surface of the comb, when 
 the withdrawal of a tin slide allows the 
 queen access to the surface of the comb 
 that is covered by the cage. Care should 
 be taken to select a spot where the young 
 bees are just gnawing out. If a few cells 
 of unsealed honey can be included, so 
 much the better. Tne queen can then 
 walk about upon the comb, and with the 
 Scotchman she can sing: 
 
 " My foot is on my native heath." 
 She can drink nectar from the unsealed 
 cells. She will soon have a retinue from 
 the newly hatched bees that are ready to 
 accept her, as they have never known 
 any other queen. She will begin laying 
 in the few cells at her command, and 
 when she is released, will be in a nearly 
 normal condition, and surrounded by a 
 few followers. Usually the bees release 
 the queen by eating under the cage. If 
 they do not, she can be released by thrust- 
 ing the blade of a pocket knife through 
 the comb from the side opposite to the 
 cage, and giving the knife a twist or two. 
 The bees will clean out and enlarge the 
 opening, thus letting out the queen. One 
 objection to the Peet cage is that the bees 
 may release the queen sooner than is best. 
 Of course this may be remedied by leav- 
 ing in the tin slide, but this defeats the 
 advantages, or supposed advantages, aris- 
 
ADVANCED BSE-CULTURE. 
 
 23 
 
 iug from caging the queen against the 
 comb. I say "supposed advantages," 
 because, as favorable as the Peet cage ap- 
 pears as an introducing cage, I have been 
 equally as successful with other cages. I 
 have had excellent success with a cylin- 
 drical cage, made from a piece of wire 
 cloth foar inches square. Ravel about 
 two wires from one edge of the wire cloth, 
 roll it up, thrusting the projecting ends 
 of the wires through the meshes of the 
 opposite edge, and clinch the ends by 
 bending them over. This forms a round 
 tube about an inch in diameter and four 
 inches long. The ends may be stopped 
 by plugs of wood, corncob, or cork, or the 
 ends may be "squeezed " until they are 
 closed. When the queen is confined in 
 such a cage, the cage should be placed 
 between two combs just over the brood 
 nest, and the combs pressed together un- 
 til their pressure holds the cage in place. 
 That the queen may not perish for want 
 of food, should the bees neglect, or re- 
 fuse, to feed her, see that one side of the 
 cage is pressed against some part of the 
 comb containing honey. 
 
 No definite length of time can be given 
 as to how long a queen should be caged 
 before she is released. The behavior of 
 the bees is the best guide. If they are 
 "balling" the cage, clinging to it in 
 masses, like so many burdocks, their be- 
 havior indicates what the queen would 
 have to endure were she within their 
 reach. The operator must wait until the 
 bees are in a different mood; until they 
 are walking quietly about over the cage, 
 as unconcernedly as upon the combs of 
 honey — perhaps the bees may be offering 
 food to the queen and caressing her with 
 their antenna. This shows that the bees 
 are favorably inclined towards the queen, 
 and that it is safe to release her. 
 
 There is probably no method of releas- 
 ing a queen, let the cage be what it may, 
 that is equal to that of stopping the en- 
 trance to the cage with Good candy, and 
 allowing the bees to eat it out. The bees 
 that first meet the queen are in good hu- 
 mor from the candy they have eaten. 
 
 The queen is released quietly at a time 
 when the colony is undisturbed. 
 
 Until quite recently a few of the leaders 
 in apiculture advised bee-keepers to ex- 
 amine a colony within an hour after the 
 queen was released, to see how she was 
 being treated. If she was found in a ball 
 of bees she must be re-caged. No worse 
 advice could be given. The disturbance 
 frightens the queen; she begins to run 
 and "squeal," when the bees immediately 
 " ball " her. When a bee-keeper rescues 
 his lately- released queen from a ball of 
 bees, it may be natural for him to con- 
 clude that his interference saved her life; 
 but the truth in nine times out of ten 
 would be that it was this very meddling 
 that put her life in jeopardy. After a 
 queen has been released the colony should 
 be let entirely alone for three or four days, 
 or a week, until the queen had become 
 fully established as queen of the hive. 
 
 To be successful in introducing queens 
 that have come from a distance, the con- 
 dition of the colony must be well looked 
 after. It is better that it should be hope- 
 lessly queenless. I<et it build a batch of 
 queen cells, and remove them after all 
 the larvae are to old to be developed into 
 queens, then the bees are almost certain 
 to accept a queen if given to them in a 
 proper manner. I would sooner release 
 a queen after the bees had discovered the 
 loss of their old queen, and before they 
 had begun the construction of queen cells, 
 then to release her after the cells were 
 under way, unless I waited until the cells 
 were sealed over and had been removed. 
 
 When engaged in queen rearing, I did 
 not lose one queen in 100 that I attempt- 
 ed to introduce to a colony that had built 
 a batch of cells. 
 
 Bees are in a much more amiable mood 
 when honey is coming in freely. Don 
 attempt to introduce queens when 
 honey is being gathered, without feeding 
 the bees two or three days before the 
 queen is released. 
 
 There is one method of introducing 
 queens that never fails; it is that of con- 
 fining the queen in a hive with several 
 
 ood 
 )n't"\ 
 no I 
 
24 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULtURE. 
 
 combs of just hatching bees. Go over 
 several hives, and select enough combs, 
 from which the bees are just emerging, 
 to fill a hive. Choose those combs hav- 
 ing the least unsealed brood, as the most 
 of this will perish. Shake off every bee 
 and hang the combs in a hive, closing it 
 up bee-tight. Allow the queen to run in 
 at a small opening, closing it behind her. 
 This work should be done in the fore 
 part of a warm day. In a few hours 
 enough bees will have been hatched to 
 make quite a little cluster, with which 
 the queen is absolutely safe. It might be 
 well to carry the hive into the house at 
 night, for two or three nights. In a week 
 the hive may be given a stand in the api- 
 ary, and the entrance opened enough to 
 allow the passage of a single bee. So 
 much trouble is not advisable unless it is 
 with a very valuable queen. 
 
 If bees are shaken from their combs in- 
 to a box, and kept confined, without a 
 queen, several hours, Mr. Doolittle says 
 they will invariably accept a queen if giv- 
 en one in the box. In other words, they 
 are hopelessly queenless, and away from 
 their home, and will accept anything in 
 the shape of a queen. 
 
 Mr. D. A. Jones is successful in intro- 
 ducing queens by using chloroform. Use 
 a small Bingham smoker. Put a dry 
 sponge at the bottom of the fire barrel. 
 Wet a sponge with chloroform and put 
 on top of the dry sponge. Over this put 
 another dry sponge. Put on the nozzle 
 and then drive the vapor into the mouth 
 of the hive, the same as smoke would be 
 driven, by working the bellows, when 
 the bees begin to drop down on the bottom 
 board, allow the queen to run in, and the 
 work is done. I have never tried either 
 the Doolittle or the chloroform method. 
 
 In recapitulation I will say, if you wish 
 to be stire of success in introducing queens. 
 
 received from a distance, observe the 
 following directions: If the bees are not 
 gathering honey, feed them. Have the 
 bees hopelessly queenless. Before releas- 
 ing the queen, see that the bees are favor- / 
 ably inclined towards her. Allow the bees 
 to release her by eating candy out of the 
 entrance of the cage. Don't disturb the 
 bees for several days after the queen is 
 released. I am aware that success is of- 
 ten achieved when some of the points are 
 neglected, but each has its weight. 
 
 Since the foregoing was written I have, 
 for three years, been guaranteeing the 
 safe introduction of all queens that Isold. 
 Of several plans that I have given my cus- 
 tomer to follow, none has been more suc- 
 cessful than that of the use of tobacco 
 smoke. The instructions that I send to 
 my customers read as follows: — 
 
 As soon as you receive this notice, re- 
 move the queen from the colony to which 
 vou expect to introduce the new queen. 
 When she arrives, put her away in a safe 
 place until after sundown, just at dusk, 
 then light your smoker, and when it is 
 well to going put in a pipeful of smoking 
 tobacco, put on the cover, puff until you 
 get an odor of tobacco, then puif two or 
 thiee good puffs into the entrance of the 
 hive. Wait two or three minutes, then 
 send in another good puff or two, remove 
 the cover, drive the bees down with a puff 
 of smoke, open the cage and allow the 
 queen to run down between the combs, 
 following her with a puff or two of smoke, 
 and put on the cover. Half an hour la- 
 ter, light up the smoker again, putting in 
 the tobacco as before, and blow two more 
 good puffs in at the entrance. If no hon- 
 ey is coming in, feed the colony a pint of 
 syrup each night from the inside of the 
 hive, but don't disturb the brood-nest for 
 four or five days. 
 
Planting for Honey. 
 
 2 >| fv lHE BELIEF in the profitable- 
 ness of raising plants for honey 
 alone has been almost universal- 
 ly abandoned. When the yield 
 from clover or basswood reaches several 
 pounds per colony each day, it is not 
 surprising that bee-keepers should have 
 been led to consider whether it might 
 not be profitable to prolong the harvest 
 by planting something that would fill 
 the "gap" — furnish honey when the nat- 
 ural sources failed. The diflSculty seems 
 to have been that not sufficient thought 
 was given to the fact that immense quan- 
 tities of bloom are needed. Some flowers 
 yield honey so profusely that it may be 
 literally scraped out with a spoon. The 
 so-called Chapman honey plant is an ex- 
 ample. With a large apiary, however, 
 there must be acres and acres of bloom, 
 or no surplus will be gathered. I pre- 
 sume few bee-keepers have considered 
 the number of acres to which their bees 
 have access. In the March Review for 
 1888, Mr. R. Iv. Taylor gives the follow- 
 ing: "Letus suppose that one in a fair 
 field for the production of comb honey 
 has an apiary of 150 colonies, with no 
 other apiary to encroach. His bees, by 
 going lyi, miles in every direction from 
 home, would scour a territory of about 
 12,000 acres. With everything in good 
 order he may hope, in a good season, to 
 get a surplus crop of 10,000 pounds of 
 comb honey. At a low estimate, I think, 
 we may say there would be enough of 
 fruit bloom, clover, basswood and fall 
 
 flowers within the territory indicated to 
 stock well 2,000 acres, but I will call it 
 1,000, and we have as the result, ten 
 pounds of surplus per acre, from land 
 well stocked with honey plants. Who 
 would let the value of that amount of 
 honey, say f 1.25, weigh very heavily in 
 deciding on the kind of crops with which 
 to stock his farm ?" 
 
 Mr. James Heddon once said, in a 
 Chicago bee convention, that he would 
 have nothing to do with any plant that 
 furnished honey alone, even if each 
 blossom yielded a barrelful of honey, if 
 the plant required cultivation . Of course, 
 this is an exaggerated statement, but it 
 illustrates a point, and that is this: 
 Those who plant for honey must com- 
 pete, in the sale of their product, with 
 those who are at no expense in planting 
 for honey — with those who are . supplied 
 by nature with an abundance of pastur- 
 age. Every one who has ever tried cul- 
 tivating plants for honey alone has even- 
 tually abandoned it. I do not mean that 
 no honey has ever been secured in these 
 experimental ventures, but that the 
 quantity has been too small to allow of 
 any profit. A light yield of honey, un- 
 less it comes early in the season when 
 extensive breeding is desirable, may even 
 ' be a detriment. It will stimulate breed- 
 ing and more honey may thus be con- 
 sumed than is gathered, and workers 
 are brought into existence at a time when 
 they will be consumers instead of pro- 
 ducers. 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 The only way in which the raising of 
 plants for honey alone can even approach 
 success, is where, for some reason, there 
 are large tracts of waste land, unfit for 
 cultivation, upon which may be scattered 
 the seeds of some houey-producing plant, 
 like sweet clover, that will grow, thrive 
 and spread without care or cultivation. 
 
 Although the raising t)f plants for hon- 
 ey alone has been painted in such som- 
 bre colors, the raising of field crops that 
 yield honey cannot be truthfully depicted 
 in much brighter hues. It is true there 
 are field crops that yield honey, but un- 
 less it would be profitable to raise them , 
 aside from their honey producing quali- 
 ties, there is but little encouragement 
 for the farmer-bee-keeper to engage in 
 their cultivation. In other words, the 
 honey that may be secured ought not to 
 be allowed to weigh very heavily in de- 
 ciding whether a certain crop should be 
 cultivated. The most promising field 
 crops to raise, that furnish honey in this 
 latitude, are alsike clover and Buckwheat. 
 As already explained, however, a few 
 acres of these near a large apiary are of 
 but little benefit. If the soil, climate, 
 and other conditions are such that it is 
 profitable for the farmers of a given lo- 
 cality to raise one or both of these crops, 
 then they will be raised and the acreage 
 will be such that the yield of, honey from 
 them will be a benefit to an apiarj- in that 
 locality. Much has been said about bee- 
 keepers encouraging the raising of these 
 crops among the surrounding farmers. 
 They have even been urged to furnish 
 the seed free to those farmers within a 
 certain distance who would sow it. If 
 the natural conditions are such that these 
 crops may be grown to advantage, and the 
 bee-keeper can, in some off-hand way, 
 call the attention of surrounding farmers 
 to the desirability of their cultivation. 
 
 and thus succeed in securing their gen- 
 eral introduction without at the same 
 time attracting attention to their honey- 
 producing qualities, well and good. To 
 some this may seem strange advice, but 
 the point is just here: If attention is 
 called to the fact that such and such 
 crops aie fine honey producing plants, 
 and farmers are urged to plant them for 
 this reason, some persons in the neigh- 
 borhood may, upon hearing of this, de- 
 cide that they will keep bees and thus 
 have a share in the harvest. I know of 
 one bee-keeper in this State who labored 
 for years to introduce alsike clover 
 among the neighboring farmers. The 
 soil was peculiarly adapted to this crop, 
 and as the farmers at last found it the 
 most profitable crop they could raise, he 
 finally had the pleasure of seeing hundreds 
 of acres devoted to its cultivation. But 
 this pleasure was not unalloyed. As 
 neighbors saw him securing thousands of 
 pounds of surplus honey, and knew that 
 it came largely from the alsike clover, 
 their course illustrated one of Josh Bil- 
 lings maxims, viz.: "We can never see a 
 fellow pulling fish out of a hole, but we 
 want to throw our hook in there too. ' ' 
 In other words, about as fast as the fields 
 of alsike increased, so did bee-keepers 
 multiply; and the man who worked so 
 hard to improve his location by in- 
 ducing farmers to raise alsikte, was, the 
 last time I saw him, beginning to fear 
 that he might be obliged to "pull up 
 stakes" and seek pastures new. 
 
 The man who is going to engage in 
 bee-keeping as a business cannot be too 
 careful in his selection of a location, to 
 get one in which nature has already done 
 the necessary planting. Let him emu- 
 late the wisdom of Mahomet in going to 
 the mountain when the mountain would 
 not come to him. 
 
specialty Versus Mixed Bee-Keeping. 
 
 £/^ (%^IME was when many of the in- 
 dustries were represented in one 
 family. Flax and wool were 
 ■'-'■ grown, spun and worked up in- 
 to cloth and made into clothing. Cows 
 were kept, and cheese as well as butter 
 made for home use. Poultry and a few 
 stocks of bees added to the comforts of 
 the household. But there is no need of 
 going into detail; everyone knows how 
 people lived loo years ago. Cheap and 
 rapid transportation has encouraged the 
 invention of machinery, the building of 
 factories and the classification of labor. 
 This has brought about specialty. No 
 one disputes that this condition of things 
 is better; by it, our comforts are more 
 than trebled. Some industries branched 
 out as specialties much sooner than others. 
 Bee-keeping was among the later ones. 
 At last, however, it is becoming recogniz- 
 ed as an industry of itself. 
 
 At present, however, there are farmers 
 who are keeping a few bees, perhaps a 
 good many bees, and apiarists who are 
 managing a small farm, perhaps a large 
 one; there are men engaged in some other 
 occupation who are thinking of taking 
 up bee-keeping, or may have already done 
 so; and there are bee-keepers asking 
 "what will best mix with bee-keeping ?" 
 
 I have little faith in that old saw about 
 not having "all the eggs in one basket." 
 / say yes, have them all in one basket, 
 and then carry the basket so skillfully 
 that none are broken. I know there are 
 trying seasons for specialists in any 
 
 branch of business; times when it might 
 be better, in that particular year , if there 
 were more than one egg basket; but the 
 specialist does enough better, in the good 
 years, to bring specialty out at the head in 
 the long run. The specialist can have 
 the best tools, appliances and labor sav- 
 ing implements, things that the dabbler 
 cannot afford; he can do and have many 
 things in a wholesale way that would be 
 unprofitable upon a small scale. Upon 
 this point, Mr. R. L. Taylor, in a com- 
 munication to the Review a few years 
 ago, said: "A multiplicity of occupations 
 multiplies the burdens of responsibility, 
 induces unrest and embarrassment, and 
 our powers becoming overtaxed, careless- 
 ness, slovenliness, unthrift and failure 
 result, A Jack at all trades is almost 
 a synonym of a ne'er-do-well. What 
 reason is there for dulling the edge of 
 skill and sacrificing thoroughness by 
 combining another business with that 
 of bee-keeping ? Not certainly to fill up 
 time. Bee-keeping as a specialty is no 
 small business. It is capable of great ex- 
 pansion. It can well furnish work for 
 every day in the year, and the larger the 
 business the smaller the proportional ex- 
 pense of the plant and the management, 
 and, consequently, the larger the profits. 
 If bee-keeping is so unprofitable as a 
 specialty that the operator must pursue 
 another business to eke out a living, then 
 it is too unprofitable to be pursued at all, 
 and should be abandoned altogether. If it 
 cannot be made profitable as a specialty, 
 
28 
 
 ADVANCED BEH-CULTURE. 
 
 with all the advantages that specialty- 
 brings, then it cannot be made profitable 
 as a subsidiary pursuit. We see this 
 demonstrated in practice. It is not the 
 specialist, but the «o«-specialist that 
 fails." 
 
 Many professional men take up bee- 
 keeping as a pastime. With them I can- 
 not have any more argument than with 
 the bee-keeper who studies music for 
 pleasure. But upon a money basis it is a 
 far different thing. When a man is engag- 
 ed in some pursuit that is capable of ab- 
 sorbing all of his energy and capital, I 
 doubt if he can add to his pleasure or 
 pocketbook by adding some other busi- 
 ness to his regular occupation. The bee- 
 keeping specialist, with his hundreds of 
 colonies, his improved hives, appliances 
 and methods, can and does raise honey 
 more cheaply than the man with a few 
 colonies. By specially is not meant that 
 a man does «oMz«^ else, but that it is his 
 main business. 
 
 It is true that there are industries in 
 which there is a mutual advantage in 
 their combination. The fattening of 
 hogs and the running of a grist mill, or 
 of a slaughter house, is an example. 
 The keeping of swine and the raising of 
 apples also brings about a mutual advan- 
 tage. The swine enrich and "cultivate" 
 the soil, and eat the wormy apples that 
 fall. This is good for the trees, and the 
 apples are good for the hogs. There is 
 no business that can be united with bee- 
 keeping to a.ny great mutual advantage. 
 There is a slight mutual advantage in the 
 keeping of bees and the raising of fruit 
 (not small fruits that must be picked in 
 swarming time), alsike or buckwheat; 
 but not sufficient to warrant a bee-keeper 
 in buying a farm, or a farmer or fruit 
 grower to run an apiary. 
 
 I hope no one will imagine that I 
 would advise bee-keeping as a specialty 
 without previous experience. How this 
 experience shall be acquired, although 
 
 an interesting topic, is not the one under 
 discussion. I might say, however, that 
 nearly all of our specialists acquired this 
 knowledge by beginning in a small way 
 in connection with some other pursuit. 
 They were better fitted for bee-keeping, 
 and, at last, the old business was drop- 
 ped for the new. Some of our specialists 
 learned their business by an apprentice- 
 ship to some successful bee-keeper, which 
 is the quickest and most preferable 
 method. 
 
 Let us suppose that the highest success 
 is attainable only by specialty. Having 
 done this, we must not forget that there 
 are "many men of many minds," and 
 that "circumstances alter cases;" that all 
 men and all circumstances are not fitted 
 for specialty. Some men prefer to lessen 
 the risk of a total failure, by having the 
 eggs in more than one basket, even if it 
 makes costly eggs. A man with a. small 
 farm may have time to care for a few 
 bees; or a farmer may have sons or 
 daughters who can do a large share of 
 the work. The reasons why a man may 
 sometimes desire, or be compelled, to mix 
 something else with bees are too varied 
 for mention here. It is evident that the 
 greatest success can be hoped for only 
 through specialty; yet no cut and dried, 
 cast-iron rules can be laid down. A man 
 must study himself, his surroundings, 
 and the conditions of his particular case. 
 It will be evident that those occupations 
 will best mix with bee-keeping that can 
 be followed in the winter; or, at least, 
 those requiring little or no attention dur- 
 ing the busy season with bees. What 
 would be best for one man would be a 
 poor business for another. Among the 
 vocations that have been mentioned are 
 wood chopping, teaching district school 
 in winter, or teaching singing or writing 
 school, raising grapes or apples or other 
 fall fruits, keeping Jerseys and making 
 winter butter, canvassing, bropm-making, 
 etc., etc. 
 
The Arrangement of Hives and Buildings. 
 
 N a small apiary, the matter of ar- 
 rangement is not of great impor- 
 tance, but as the number of colonies 
 ■'-^ begins to approach loo, the ques- 
 tion of arrangement becomes one of con- 
 siderable importance. Two things need 
 consideration: the convenience of the 
 operator and the giving of such an in- 
 dividuality to each hive that each bee 
 can readily distinguish its home. 
 
 Before discussing these points, it might 
 be well to say a few words about the lo- 
 cation of the apiary. First, it ought to 
 be some distance from the highway. What 
 that distance should be, depends up- 
 on what there is between the bees and 
 the street. If there are buildings, or 
 trees, or even a high fence, the bees may 
 be quite near the road; as, in their flight, 
 they rise above these obstructions, and 
 thus pass over the heads of the passers- 
 by. If there is nothing between the 
 apiary and the highway, the apiary 
 ought not to be nearer the street 
 than ten rods, and fifteen or twenty rods 
 would be better. It is possible with a 
 small apiary to avoid trouble even if it is 
 located quite near the street. If it is nec- 
 essary to handle the bees when no honey 
 is coming in, and such handling is likely 
 to irritate them, such work can be done 
 just before dark, when the bees will not 
 fly far from the hives; but in a large 
 apiary there is too much work that must 
 be done when the bees may not be in an 
 amiable mood, to enable the operator to 
 perform it during the twilight of evening. 
 
 If necessary, the bee-keeper can protect 
 himself with a veil,. and, armed with 
 a smoker, he can go on with the 
 work, even if the bees are a lit- 
 tle "cross," but the apiary must be 
 isolated. Nearly level ground is prefer- 
 able for an apiary. If it slopes gently to 
 the south, or east, so much the better. It 
 should never be in such a location that 
 water will stand upon the ground. 
 
 I have tried placing the honey house in 
 the center of the apiary, and having the 
 hives in long double rows that radiated 
 from the honey house as the spokes in a 
 wheel radiate from the hub. In each 
 double row a space large enough for a 
 wheelbarrow is left between the rows, 
 and the entrances of the hives are turned 
 away from the path left for the operator 
 and his wheelbarrow. So far as reduc- 
 ing the labor of going to and from the 
 hives is concerned, this arrangement is 
 excellent, but it has the very serious ob- 
 jection that only part of the apiary can 
 be seen at one glance from the honey 
 house. In watching for swarms it is 
 necessary to look in foicr different di- 
 rections in order to ascertain if a swarm 
 is out. When the honey house is at one 
 side of the apiary, the whole apiary can 
 be taken in at a glance. Other things 
 being equal, the south side of the apiary 
 is preferable for the honey house. In 
 looking for swarms the bee-keeper does 
 not look towards the sun, but has the 
 clear northern sky for a background, 
 while the shady side of the building, 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 which will be naturally sought by the 
 tired bee-keeper as the best spot in which 
 to take a breathing spell, is towards the 
 apiary. 
 
 It is universally admitted that it is best 
 that the honey house be upon the side of 
 the apiary, and most bee-keepers are in 
 favor of having the building two stories 
 high, using the upper story as a store 
 room for hives and fixtures, the lower 
 story for work shop and honey room, the 
 latter being partitioned off by itself, and 
 the cellar under the building for winter- 
 ing the bees. The usual mistake in mak- 
 ing such buildings is in not having them 
 large enough. The honey room ought 
 to be located in the southeast corner of 
 the building, and the walls made of some 
 non-conductor of heat. Some even 
 paint the side of the building some 
 dark color where it comes over the hon- 
 ey room, in order that as much as possi- 
 ble of the sun's heat may be absorbed. 
 The idea is that the honey must be kept 
 as warm as possible. If there is any un- 
 ripe or unsealed honey, this high temper- 
 ature causes evaporation and improve- 
 ment. By keeping such a room warm 
 with a stove in winter, honey has been 
 kept over until another year, and actual- 
 ly improved by the keeping. 
 
 But to return to the arrangement of 
 hives. When the honey house is at one 
 side of the apiary, the hives may still 
 be arranged upon the radiating plan, by 
 having them radiate from the honey 
 house door, thus forming one-half of a 
 large wheel instead of the whole of a 
 small one, as in the case of having the 
 honey house in the center. Where the 
 radiating rows are very long they become 
 very iar apart at the outer ends, or else 
 very close together at the inner ends. 
 To remedy this, shorter rows, or "spurs,'' 
 are put in between the rows at the outer 
 ends. 
 
 Another arrangement is that of placing 
 the hives in a hexagonal manner, each 
 hive being the center of six others. I 
 see no particular advantage in this ar- 
 rangement. 
 
 Still another arrangement is that of 
 placing the hives in circles. The en- 
 trances of the hives in the inner row are 
 towards the center, while those of the 
 outer row face outwards. This leaves 
 the space between the two rows compar- 
 atively free from bees, and the operator 
 can work in this space without annoy- 
 ance to himself or the flying bees. If 
 the two circles do not furnish sufficient 
 room, more and larger circles may be 
 added, or there may be two sets of cir- 
 cles, or three sets, arranged in the form 
 of a triangle, or even four sets and ar- 
 ranged in a quadrangle. 
 
 In all of the large apiaries that I have 
 visited the hives were arranged in straight, 
 simple rows, like the squares of a check- 
 er board, the entrances, in some instan- 
 ces, facing the same way when the hives 
 were from six to eight feet apart. I 
 would prefer to have the entrances of 
 each alternate row turned towards the 
 east, and the entrances of the hives in 
 other rows turned towards the west. 
 This would leave each alternate passage- 
 way comparatively free from bees, and 
 the operator could work here without 
 the bees bumping their heads against 
 his. I would have the entrance to every 
 hive face either east or west, because I 
 wish to shade the hives with a light 
 board, 2x3 feet in size, laid over each 
 hive and projecting towards the south, 
 and this projecting board would be in 
 the way of the flying bees if the entrance 
 were upon the south side. When the 
 hives are arranged in rows radiating from 
 a common center, I always turn the en- 
 trance of each hive so that it is either 
 east or west. 
 
 There is no necessity of placing hives 
 further apart than is necessary to afford 
 sufficient space on all sides for the oper- 
 ator. Bees do not locate their- hive so 
 much by the distance that it my be from 
 other hives, as they do by its surround- 
 ings; and these surroundings are usually 
 other hives. To illustrate: Let the end 
 hive be removed from a long row of hives, 
 and the bees belonging to the removed 
 
ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 
 
 31 
 
 hive will almost unhesitatingly enter the 
 hive that has become the end hive in the 
 row. Two hives may stand side by side, 
 perhaps almost or quite touching each 
 other, and each bee has no diflSculty in 
 distinguishing its own hive. In a row of 
 three, four, or even five hives, the same 
 might be said, but as the number goes 
 beyond this, there is a little uncertainty 
 about the matter. When their hives are 
 in long rows, some bee-keepers arrange 
 them in groups of three or five in the row, 
 leaving a wider space between the groups 
 than there is between the individual hives 
 composing a gtoup. Arranging hives in 
 circles gives a greater individuality to 
 each hive than can be secured in almost 
 any other arrangement; that is, if the 
 entrances are faced directly into or out of 
 the circle; but my objection to this plan 
 is that it interferes with the proper use of 
 shade boards. 
 
 The greatest objection to any unifor- 
 mity of arrangement that makes it dilE- 
 cult for the bees to "mark" their location, 
 is that queens may enter the wrong hive 
 upon their return from their "wedding 
 trip . ' ' With my method of management, 
 
 in which the young queen is given a new 
 stand to prevent after swarming, a la 
 Heddon, this difficulty is easily remedied 
 by placing the hive in some location that 
 is easily marked, the end of a row for 
 instance. When this cannot be done, 
 the hives containing unfertile queens may 
 be marked in some conspicuous manner 
 that will easily enable them to distinguish 
 their own hives. I believe that where 
 foul brood is in the apiary, this regular- 
 ity of arrangement leads to a greater dan- 
 ger of spreading the disease by bees from 
 infected colonies entering some other 
 hive by mistake. 
 
 In queen rearing it is important that 
 the small hives, containing the nuclei, 
 be scattered about promiscuously; the 
 greater the irregularity and oddity of ar- 
 rangement, the less will be the loss of 
 queens from their entering wrong hives; 
 but in a large apiary managed for honey 
 it is doubtful if there is a better arrange- 
 ment than that of placing the hives in 
 rows; audit seems to me that a little is 
 gained, and nothing lost, by having the 
 rows radiate from the honev house door. 
 
 >'^-7^l^fi&t6^^^^<^ 
 
 Separators. 
 
 -(=;r>^ Y filling the frames with sheets 
 l_-i-^ of foundation we can secure 
 
 □"^ perfectly straight and even 
 -^ combs in the brood nest. Why 
 
 will not the same treatment of the sec- 
 tions result in straight combs ? Because 
 all combs in which brood is reared must 
 be of a certain thickness, while store 
 combs may vary in thickness from half an 
 inch to four inches. Bees place their 
 brood combs an inch and a half apart 
 
 from center to center, and the nearer our 
 sections approach this width the more 
 perfect will be the combs when no sepa- 
 rators are used. It is well nigh impossible 
 to secure straight combs when the sec- 
 tions are two inches wide, unless sepa- 
 rators are used. When the sections are 
 only I ^ inches wide, fair success may. be 
 attained with no separators if other con- 
 ditions are right. When the sections are 
 scant i^, or seven-to-the-foot, but little 
 
32 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CUr.TURE. 
 
 would be gained, so far as securing 
 straight combs without separators is con- 
 cerned, by having them narrower. 
 
 Aside from the width of sections used, 
 the need of separators depends somewhat 
 upon the fixtures and methods employed, 
 but principally upon the locality. Per- 
 haps it will be asked what bearing local- 
 ity has. It has this: When the honey 
 flow commences suddenly, comes with a 
 rush while it lasts, and stops off short at 
 the end, the combs are all commenced at 
 about the same time, all grow together 
 and are alike, and are finished at the same 
 time, hence they are straight and perfect 
 — no thick, thin, or bulged combs. When 
 the honey resources, or the changes in the 
 weather, are such that the honey flow be- 
 gins slowly, or having commenced, is not 
 steady, it is difficult to secure perfect 
 combs unless separators are used. If the 
 honey flow is light at first, the bees will 
 begin work in the central sections over 
 the brood nest, and when the cells of the 
 most advanced sections have reached that 
 length where, in order to produce a 
 straight, perfect comb, they ought to be 
 sealed over, the bees do not seal them, 
 because the work in the adjoining sec- 
 tions is not sufficiently advanced to re- 
 duce the space between the combs to the 
 right distance. The bees continue to 
 draw out or lengthen the cells ot both 
 sections, aud the result is that the comb 
 of the most advanced sections is bulged 
 out, and the adjoining side of the next 
 comb is made correspondingly concave. 
 Then the outer side of this second section 
 is made convex and bulges into the next 
 section; and this series of curves is con- 
 tinued, increasing with each section, un- 
 til the outside section is reached, which 
 cannot be bulged upon the outside be- 
 cause the side of the case is in the way, 
 consequently this outside section is a slim 
 affair. 
 
 If the first case of sections given a colo- 
 ny in the spring can be filled with partly 
 finished combs kept over from the previ- 
 ous season, I think it results iu several 
 advantages. One advantage is that by a 
 
 little care in arranging the combs, those 
 with cells of about equal depth can be 
 placed together. The combs nearest 
 completion can be placed in the corners 
 and on the outside, and those with the 
 shortest cells in the center. By this 
 method nearly all the combs are comple- 
 ted at almost the same time and with but 
 little bulging, and by the time that an- 
 other case of sections is needed, the colo- 
 ny will have increased in numbers and 
 the flow of honey become so great that 
 work will be commenced at once on all 
 of the sections. 
 
 So far as dispensing with separators is 
 concerned, it may be well to be a little 
 slow in giving sections, unless they can 
 be filled with comb as j ust mentioned. 
 To illustrate: I have waited, before giv- 
 ing sections to a colony, until it was over- 
 flowing with bees, and the flow of honey 
 from clover fully established. Within 
 five minutes after giving the case it was 
 full of bees and they were at work draw- 
 ing out the foundation in every section. 
 I am not inclined to indorse this method, 
 particularly if the bees are Itklians, as 
 this variety of bees is loth to store honey 
 at any great di.stance from the brood nest, 
 and every enticement should be offered to 
 induce them to begin work in the sec- 
 tions, and thus relieve the pressure upon 
 the brood nest Nothing will start bees 
 to swarming any quicker than to have no 
 place to store their honey except in their 
 brood nest. 
 
 Aside from their cost, I know of no ob- 
 jection to the use of separators. Upon 
 the amount of surplus honey secured, I 
 believe their use has no influence. When 
 they are used there is a trifle more labor 
 until we come to crating the honey for 
 market, when the boot is on the other 
 foot, particularly so if the combs are very 
 much bulged. When no separators are 
 used a simpler form of super may be used. 
 
 But, shall I use separators? That is 
 the question that each bee-keeper must 
 answer. If you cannot secure straight 
 combs without, yes. By straight combs 
 is not necessarially n)eant combs as 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 33 
 
 straight as a board, but so straight that 
 they may be crated, or pulled out of the 
 crate or case, without injury to combs. If a 
 man can secure nearly all straight combs, 
 and has a home market for the few bulged 
 sections, then separators are a useless 
 expense. 
 
 If separators are to be used, then an- 
 other question arises; shall they be wood, 
 or tin? Fortunately, bee-keepers are 
 agreed upon this point. If they are to 
 be used loose, as in the T super, wood is 
 the material to use; if nailed fast to wide 
 frames, tin is preferable. If a wood sep- 
 arator is nailed fast, the shrinking and 
 swelling of the wood causes the separator 
 to curl sidewise, or it may split. If it be- 
 comes injured in anyway, there is the an- 
 noyance of its removal and the nailing 
 on of another. If a tin separator is not 
 
 nailed fast at its ends, it takes advantage 
 of this freedom to bend a little here and 
 there, instead of keeping stretched out 
 straight, while a wood separator will not 
 bend in the direction of its length. 
 
 Before closing, let me tell my readers 
 how they can nail tin separators on wide 
 frames and have the tin remain taut. 
 Nail two blocks upon the top of your 
 work bench at such a distance apart that 
 you can just " spring " in between them 
 the top and bottom bars of a wide frame 
 that is put together. This shortens the 
 distance between the end bars. While 
 held in this position, nail on the tin sep- 
 arator. Upon removing the frame from 
 between the blocks, the top and bottom 
 bars will straighten out, and, in so doing, 
 draw the tin as taut as a drum head. 
 
 ^'^:i''^^^m^4^^^f<:^ 
 
 Increase, its Management and Control. 
 
 £^ fNl^HERE are two classes of bee- 
 keepers who desire to prevent 
 increase in the number of their 
 colonies. The first and by far 
 the larger class, own only large home- 
 apiaries, and prefer surplus to increase. 
 This class can allow swarming if, by 
 some simple manipulation, the number of 
 colonies can be kept the same; and the 
 bees induced to devote their energies to 
 the storing of honey. The second class 
 are possessors of out-apiaries; and they 
 desire not only to prevent increase, but 
 to suppress swarming. This accomplish- 
 ed, the out-apiaries can be left alone, ex- 
 cept at stated intervals. 
 
 In reply to the question, "Why do 
 bees swarm?" it has been replied that, 
 "It is natural." "It is their method of 
 increase " This may be true in part, 
 but it is not a satisfactory answer. I 
 
 have never known a season to pass in 
 which all of the colonies of my apiary 
 either swarmed or didn't swarm. One 
 year I had seventy-five colonies. They 
 were worked for comb honey. Forty of 
 them swarmed; thirty-five didn't. It 
 would have been just as "natural," just 
 as much "according to nature" for one 
 colony to swarm as for another. In 
 Gleanings for 1889 there was quite a 
 length)- discussion in regard to the causes 
 that led to swarming. The chit of the 
 decision seemed to be that an undue pro- 
 portion of young or nurse bees to the 
 brood to be nursed was the prime cause 
 of swarming. If the brood nest be well 
 filled with brood, then for lack of other 
 room the bees begin storing honey in the 
 cells from which the bees are hatching, 
 the result is that soon there is but little 
 brood to care for compared to the num- 
 
34 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CUX,TURE. 
 
 ber of nurses, or youns: bees. This the- 
 ory is strengthened by the fact that when 
 bees are given an abundance of empty 
 comb in which to store their honey, 
 swarming very seldom occurs. In short, 
 extracting the honey, or, to be more ex- 
 act, giving plenty of empty comb, is the 
 most successful, practical method of con- 
 trolling increase. In large apiaires, es- 
 pecially out-apiaries that can be visited 
 only at intervals, it is well nigh impossi- 
 ble to keep every colony always supplied 
 with empty combs, hence there will be 
 occasional swarms. If there is to be 
 someone present to hive what few swarms 
 do issue, and prevention of increase is 
 desired simply that the amount of sur- 
 plus may be greater, and the surplus is 
 preferred in the extracted fbrm, then the 
 man with these desires can have them 
 gratified. 
 
 « In the production of comb honey, I 
 doubt if there is a profitable method of 
 preventing swarming. It may be dis- 
 couraged by giving as much surplus 
 room as possible; but foundation does 
 not equal drawn comb as a discourage- 
 ment to swarming. The issuing of after- 
 swarms can be prevented, but the best 
 that can be done with first swarms is to 
 let them come, and then so manage as to 
 make the most of them. When the sea- 
 son for surplus honey closes with clover 
 or basswood, it is better not to try to se- 
 cure surplus from both the parent col- 
 ony and the swarm. Hive the swarm up- 
 on the old stand, transferring the supers 
 from the old to the new hive. If the 
 brood chamber of the new hive is not too 
 large, work will at once be resumed in 
 the sections. Place the old hive by the 
 side of the new one, but with its entrance 
 turned to one side. That is, have the 
 rear ends of the hives nearly in contact, 
 but their entrances perhaps two feet 
 apart. Each day turn the entrance of 
 the old hive a few inches towards that of 
 the new hive. At the end of the sixth 
 day the two hives should stand side by 
 side. Practically, the hives are on one 
 stand, True, the bees of each hive recog- 
 
 nize and enter their own home, but re- 
 move either hive, and all of the flying 
 bees would euter the remaining hive. 
 Usually the second swarm comes out on 
 the eighth day after the issuing of the 
 first. Now, if the apiarist will, on the 
 seventh day, about noon, when most of 
 the bees are a-field, carry the old hive 
 to a new location, all of the bees that 
 have flown from the old hive since the 
 issuing of the swarm, that have marked 
 the old location as their home, will re- 
 turn and join the newly hived swarm. 
 This booms the colony where the sections 
 are, and so reduces the old colony, just 
 as the young queens are hatching, that 
 any farther swarming is abandoned. The 
 old colony just about builds up into a first- 
 class colony for wintering. If there is a 
 fall honey flow, such a colony may store 
 some surplus then. This method of pre- 
 venting after-swarming, called the Hed- 
 don method, is not infallible. If a col- 
 ony swarms before the first queen cell is 
 sealed, the first young queen may not 
 hatch until the old colony has been upon 
 the new stand long enough for a suffi- 
 cient number of bees to hatch to form a 
 swarm, when they may swarm; but as a 
 rule, this plan is a success. 
 
 If the bee-keeper desires no increase, 
 let him pursue the plan just given, for 
 the prevention of after-swarming, until 
 the point is reached where the old hive is 
 to be carried to a new location, when the 
 old hive is simply to b% shifted to the 
 opposite side of the new hive with its 
 entrance turned away as in the first 
 instance. Each day the hive is to 
 be turned slightly, as before, until 
 the hives are again parallel, when, 
 at the end of a week from the time the 
 "shift" was made, the hive can again be 
 changed to the other side of the new 
 hive. By this management the young 
 bees that are continually hatching in the 
 parent colony are being enticed into the 
 hive containing the swarm. At the end 
 of the third week, the combs of the old 
 hive will be free of brood. That left by 
 the old queen will have all hatched, 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CUIvTURE. 
 
 35 
 
 while the young queen will not have 
 been laying more than two or three days 
 at the most. The few remaining bees 
 can now be shaken from the combs of the 
 old colony and allowed to run into the 
 new hive. If there is any choice of 
 queens, the apiarist can kill the one that 
 is the less desirable; otherwise he can 
 allow the queens to settle the matter for 
 themselves. I prefer the latter course. 
 What little honey is left in the combs 
 may be extracted, and the combs, unless 
 there is some immediate use for them, 
 stored away and close watch kept over 
 them, that they are not injured by the 
 bee-moth's larvae. I don't like the plan 
 of putting the brood combs of a colony 
 from which a swarm has issued, upon 
 some other hive, the cells being filled 
 with honey as fast as the bees hatch. 
 There seems to be no good plan of allow- 
 ing bees to swarm and then preventing 
 increase by uniting, without having an 
 extra set of combs built for each swarm 
 that issues, but t believe such combs are 
 produced at a profit. There is still 
 another plan of preventing increase, be- 
 sides that of merging the old colony in- 
 to the new; it is that of contracting the 
 brood nest of the newly hived swarm to 
 such an extent that the end of the season 
 will find it too reduced in numbers for 
 successful wintering, when it may be 
 united with the parent colony. 
 
 I do not wish to be understood as say- 
 ing or even intimating that there are no 
 other methods of preventing or control.- 
 ling increase. There are several. But it 
 is not always a question of what can be 
 done, but of can it be done profitably "? 
 Some have practiced, and reported favor- 
 ably, the plan of allowing a swarm to 
 return to the old hive, then removing 
 the queen, and afterwards cutting out all 
 the queeu cells except one. It has this 
 in its favor: The colony is requeened; 
 but, as an offset, there is the labor of 
 cutting out the cells, with the possibility 
 that one or more may be overlooked, or 
 that the one left ma}- not hatch. With 
 the prices at which honey sells, there 
 must be as little of this "puttering" work 
 
 as possible. The cutting out of queen 
 cells, handling of combs singly, chang- 
 ing them about, etc. , must be dropped 
 for more wholesale, short-cut methods. 
 There must be more handling of hives 
 and less manipulation of combs. 
 
 For some reason a colony with a queen 
 of the current year seldom swarms. Per- 
 haps one reason is that her vigorous lay- 
 ing does not allow the bees to crowd her 
 out, and thus reduce the amount of brood 
 compared with the number of nurse bees. 
 In order to be effective, the young queens 
 must be introduced early in the spring, 
 before there are any preparations for 
 swarming. It is difficult to rear queens 
 so early in the season, and expensive to 
 get them from the South. 
 
 Quite a number of bee-keepers have 
 succeeded to their entire satisfaction in 
 preventing after-swarming, also in pre- 
 venting increase, while but very few have 
 succeeded in preventing swarming. 
 Probably the only certain method that 
 has been used to any extent, in this 
 country, is that of removing the queens 
 just at the opening of the swarming sea- 
 son, leaving the colonies queenless about 
 three weeks. Of course, queen cells 
 must be cut out at least twice during this 
 interval. Although a few, good men 
 practice this method, I never could bring 
 myself to adopt it — there is too much 
 labor. I have said nothing in regard to 
 making increase artificially, because, un- 
 less there is a desire for unusual increase, 
 or to leave the apiary unattended, I think 
 natural increase is preferable. One diffi- 
 culty in dividing bees to forestall swarm- 
 ing, is that all colonies are not ready for 
 division at the same time. There is dan- 
 ger of waiting too long or of dividing too 
 soon. 
 
 The man who is raising honey as a 
 business will find it to his advantage to 
 allow each colony to swarm once, if it 
 will, (and no more) then make the most 
 out of the swarm. Whether the swarm 
 and old colony shall be again merged in- 
 to one depends upon the desirability of 
 increase, 
 
Shade for Bees. 
 
 doit? 
 
 HALL we shade our bees? If 
 so, why, when, how? Some 
 bee-keepers do not shade their 
 hives; others do. Why do they 
 Is it really necessary ? Do they 
 thereby secure more honej' ? These are 
 pertinent questions to which it . is diflScult 
 to give definite answers, but about which 
 it is advisable to know all that is known. 
 The temperature of a colony of bees in 
 the summer, when brood is being reared, 
 is nearly loo."' Until the temperature in 
 the sun, reaches this point, shade is no 
 benefit; rather is it an injury, as it de- 
 prives the bees of the warmth of the sun 
 at a time when it would be of some ben- 
 efit. When the temperature in the sun 
 goes above loo", and begins to climb up 
 to no", 120°, 130°, 140°, then the effort 
 upon the part of the bees is to lower in- 
 stead of raise the temperature in the 
 hive. Crowds of bees stand at the en- 
 trance of the hive, and with their wings 
 create strong ventilating currents of air. 
 It has been asserted that the bees leave 
 the combs of honey well-nigh forsaken 
 when the temperature is very high; the 
 reason given being that the combs can 
 be kept cooler when not covered with 
 bees. I have also read and been told, 
 that bees would "hang out," that is, 
 cluster upon the outside of the hive, in- 
 stead of working, if their hives were left 
 unshaded during a hot day; that they 
 were compelled to thus desert their hives 
 to save their combs from destruction. I 
 have always kept my hives shaded dur- 
 
 ing the hot weather, hence cannot speak 
 from experience upon this point; but, if 
 it is true, then it would seem that shade, 
 in very hot weather, is both desirable 
 and profitable. This much I have no- 
 ticed, that weak colonies, nuclei, for in- 
 stance, seldom make any demonstration 
 of discomfort from heat, even when left 
 unshaded, while strong colonies are puff- 
 ing and blowing like the runner of a foot- 
 race. Why is this ? Isn't it because the 
 strong colony is suffering from the ac- 
 cumulation of its own heat — that genera- 
 ted by itself — that cannot escape fast 
 enough? If this be true, why isn't a 
 chaflE hive the most insufferably hot place 
 imaginable for a colony of bees in hot 
 weather ? Possibly the point is just here: 
 the bees in the chaff hive have to con- 
 tend with their own heat only, while 
 those in the single-wall hive have that 
 from the sun in addition to their own. 
 The thick walls act as a sort of absorbent 
 of heat; taking it up and retaining it dur- 
 ing the day and gradually giving it up 
 during the cool of night. Let this be as 
 it may, a colony can be kept the coolest 
 in a thin wall hive in the shade. How do 
 we keep cool in hot weather ? We wear 
 thin clothing and lie in the hammock in 
 the shade. A colony of bees is a living 
 heat-producing body, and can be kept 
 cool in the same manner that we keep 
 our bodies cool, viz., let its clothing (hive) 
 be thin, with a free circulation of air up- 
 on all sides, above and below, and protect 
 it from the sun's rays. 
 
A WELL SHADED HIVE. 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 37 
 
 The color of the hives has a great 
 bearing upon the necessity for shade. 
 Black, or a dark color, absorbs heat, while 
 it is reflected or repelled by white. I 
 have seen the combs melt down in an old 
 weather-beaten hive that stood in the sun, 
 but I never saw them melt in hives paint- 
 ed white, even if standing in the sun. 
 
 There is still another point that has 
 a bearing upon the question under dis- 
 cussion, and that is the circulation of air 
 about the hives. I have read of combs 
 melting down in hives standing in shade 
 so dense that the sun never shown upon 
 them. The trouble was that growing 
 corn on one side, and dense brush upon 
 the other, made it so close that no air 
 circulated. 
 
 Shade is not needed in the spring, fall, 
 morning or evening. The only time that 
 it is needed, if it is needed, is in the 
 middle of our hottest days; and some 
 temporary, quickly adjustable, easily re- 
 movable shade is preferable to an at- 
 tempt to furnish a permanent shade by 
 growing evergreens, grape vines and the 
 like. In fact, a permanent shade, like 
 that furnished by an evergreen, is an in- 
 jury in spring, robbing the bees of the 
 benefit to be derived from the heat of 
 the sun. In fact, I know of nothing bet- 
 ter than a light board, 2x3 feet in size, 
 laid upon the top of the hives. One of 
 the longest edges of the board is placed 
 parallel and even with the North edge of 
 the top of the hive, the opposite edge of 
 
 the board projecting beyond the South 
 edge of the hive. This shades the hive 
 when shade is needed, and only when it 
 is needed — in the middle of the day. In 
 a windy situation it may be necessary to 
 lay a brick or a stone upon this board to 
 keep it in place. Don't imagine that 
 hooks or something of the kiud will be 
 preferable for holding the shade boards 
 in place. A weight is the simplest, cheap- 
 est and most convenient. I make these 
 shade boards by nailing the thick ends of 
 shingles to apiece of inch board four in- 
 ches wide and two feet long. They cost 
 only five cents each, and in the fall I tack 
 them together and make packing boxes 
 for packing the bees. 
 
 For the comfort of the apiarist, it is 
 well to have a few scattering trees in the 
 apiary, but let their branches be trimmed 
 to such a height that they will not be 
 knocking off his hat or gouging his eyes. 
 
 Perhaps this whole matter of shade 
 might be summed up something as fol- 
 lows: If the apiary is located where the 
 cool breezes can fan the heating sides of 
 the hives, wafting away the heat ere it 
 accumulates, and a broad generous en- 
 trance is furnished each tidy, white hive, 
 I am persuaded that shade is not so very 
 essential. If the hives are dark in color, 
 or the apiary is located where there is not 
 a free circulation of air, I feel sure that 
 shade is an absolute necessity to prevent 
 the combs from melting, if for nothing 
 else. 
 
 Contraction of the Brood Nest. 
 
 £y^ ps^HE brood nest is contracted to 
 prevent the production of brood 
 at a time when the resulting 
 bees would come upon the stage 
 of action at a time when there would be 
 no honey to gather — when they would be 
 consumers instead of producers. It is al- 
 
 so contracted to compel the bees to store 
 the honey in the sections instead of in 
 the brood nest. There are several reasons 
 why this is desirable. The honey from 
 clover and basswood is while, fine flavor- 
 ed, and brings a higher price than that 
 gathered later; hence it is more profitable 
 
38 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CUr.TURE. 
 
 to force this higher priced honey into the 
 sections, and allow the bees to fill the 
 brood combs, later on, with winter stores 
 from such sources as yield honey that 
 brings a lower price. When it is desir- 
 able, either from its cheapness, or from 
 its superiority as a winter food, to use su- 
 gar for winter stores, contraction of the 
 brood nest can be so managed as to leave 
 the bees almost destitute of honey in the 
 fall, which does away with the trouble of 
 extracting, and leaves nothing to be done 
 except to feed the bees. Such, in brief, 
 are the advantages of contracting the 
 brood nest. Where the honey flow lasts 
 nearly the whole season, with no long 
 periods of scarcity, and the quality of 
 honey is uniform throughout the season, 
 and no advantage is found in substituting 
 sugar for honey as winter stores, I see 
 little need of contracting the brood nest, 
 and would advise that it be of such size 
 that an ordinarily prolific queen can keep 
 the combs well filled with brood in the 
 early part of the season; but where any 
 of the first mentioned conditions exist, 
 the bee-keeper who neglects "contrac- 
 tion " is not employing all the advan- 
 tages that are available. 
 
 As a rule, I don't advise the contrac- 
 tion of the brood nest of an established 
 colony. If it does iiot properly fill its 
 hive, is too weak, and the time for put- 
 ting on sections has arrived, then contrac- 
 tion is necessary if the colony is to be 
 worked for comb honey. But when a 
 colony completely fills its hive and has 
 its combs well filled with brood, I doubt 
 if much is gained by contracting the 
 brood nest. So long as the combs are 
 kept full of brood, the surplus will go in- 
 to the supers. If any of the combs of 
 brood are taken away, they must be cared 
 for by other bees somewhere else, so 
 nothing is gained. 
 
 It is in the hiving of a swarm that I 
 have found contraction of the brood nest 
 advisable. Years ago some of the "big 
 guns " in apiculture were given to la- 
 menting the swarming of bees, because, 
 they said, with the swarm went all hopes 
 
 of surplus. As the business was then 
 conducted, the "big guns" were correct 
 in many instances. The swarm would be 
 hived in a ten-frame hive, and no supers 
 put on until the hive was filled. If they 
 were put on they would not be occupied 
 until the lower hive was filled, and by 
 the time that this was accomplished it 
 often happened that the white honey har- 
 vest had passed. If the old colony did 
 not swarm (usually it did), some return 
 might be expected from that, unless the 
 season was nearly over. In most of our 
 Northern States the crop of white honey 
 is gathered within six weeks, often with- 
 in a month. If a colony is in condition 
 to begin work in the suoers at the open- 
 ing of the white honey harvest, and con- 
 tinues faithfully at work without swarm- 
 ing, as I have already said, no contraction 
 is needed, but, suppose the harvest is half 
 over, the bees are working nicely in the 
 supers, there may be one case of sections 
 almost ready to come off, another two- 
 thirds finished, and a third in which the 
 work has only nicely commenced, now 
 the colony swarms, what shall be done ? 
 By hiving the swarm in a contracted 
 brood chamber upon the old stand, trans- 
 ferring the supers to the newly hived 
 swarm, and practicing the Heddon method 
 of preventing after-swarming, work will 
 be resumed and continued in the supers 
 without interruption, and the surplus will 
 be nearly as great as though no swarming 
 had taken place. 
 
 Where the brood-nest has only one tier 
 of frames, the only way by which it can 
 be contracted is by taking out some of 
 the outside combs, and filling the space 
 these left, by the use of "dummies." A 
 "dummy" is simply a brood frame with 
 thin boards tacked upon both sides. It 
 hangs in the hive and occupies space the 
 same as a comb, only it is a "dummy" 
 just as its name indicates. A frame wider 
 than a brood frame may be used, and 
 this will make the "dummy" thicker. 
 Don't have a dummy touch the side of 
 the hive, then the bees cannot glue it 
 fast. How thick a dummy should be, de- 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 39 
 
 Dends upon how many combs are to be re- 
 moved. When using the L,angstroth 
 frame I prefer to contract to five frames. 
 
 With the Heddon hive, in which the 
 brood chamber is horizontally divisible, 
 simply using only one section of the brood 
 nest contiacts the brood nest to about the 
 proper capacity. This method of contrac- 
 tion is preferable to using dummies'. Not 
 only is there less labor and complication, 
 but the flattening of the brood-nest, and 
 the absence of any dummies under the 
 outer sections, makes the bees more in- 
 clined to work in the supers. 
 
 When the brood nest is very much con- 
 tracted, it has a tendencj' to cause a new- 
 ly hived swarm to "swarm out" and leave 
 the hive. When there is trouble from 
 this source, the brood nest may be used 
 nearly or quite full size for two or three 
 days, until the swarming fever has abated, 
 and the bees have settled down to steady 
 work. If newly hived swarms begin 
 "swarming out," when I am using the 
 new Heddon hive, I use a full size brood 
 nest for three days, and then shake the 
 
 bees from the lower section of the hive, 
 and use this section for the upper section 
 of the next hive in which I put a swarm. 
 It has been urged against contraction 
 that it results in small colonies at the end 
 of the season. If it is carried to too 
 great extent, and too long continued, it 
 certainly does. If a man wishes to turn 
 bees into honey, contraction will enable 
 him to accomplish his object. If colonies 
 are too weak in the fall as the result of 
 severe contraction, they must be united; 
 but the course pursued by nearly all who 
 practice contraction, is to enlarge the 
 brood nest again in time for the colony to 
 build up sufficiently for a fall flow of hon- 
 ey, if there is one, or to become strong 
 enough for winter. When bees are win- 
 tered in a repository of the proper tem- 
 perature, I have never found that un- 
 usually populous colonies were any more 
 desirable than smaller ones. This is one 
 advantage of cellar wintering, the popula- 
 tion may be reduced to the minimum dur- 
 ing the comsumptive, non-productive 
 part of the year. 
 
 >^^>^^<^^^^^^4>'^<^ 
 
 Hiving Bees. 
 
 [y\ fv^HE hiving of a swarm of bees is 
 a very simple operation when 
 only one swarm comes out at 
 ^-^ the same time, and hangs itself 
 up on the limb of a tree within easy reach 
 of the bee-keeper; but in a large apiary, 
 where several swarms are often in the air 
 at the same time, and there are tall trees 
 near by, the getting of all the bees into 
 the hives in the right quantities, accompa- 
 nied by queens, is no light task. 
 
 To my mind, there is only one way in 
 which these hosts of circling, whirling, 
 excited little bodies can be satisfactorily 
 controlled; and that is through the 
 
 queens. No swarm will ever leave the 
 apiary unless accompanied by a queen. 
 If the queens' wings are clipped, or traps 
 in front of the hives catch them as they 
 attempt to leave, there will be no chasing 
 after and losing of swarms. The swarms 
 may unite, when mori than one issues, 
 and all may attempt to return and enter 
 one hive, but there will be no loss of 
 bees nor climbing of trees. The bees will 
 stay in the yard, and can be brought with- 
 in reach of the bee master; while the 
 absence of queens and the desire of the 
 bees for a qneen, allows the apiarist to 
 control the bees to such an extent that 
 
40 
 
 ABVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 he eventually becomes master of the sit- 
 uation. I clung to the plan of allowing 
 queens to accompany swarms, until I was 
 forced to abandon it. The loss from 
 absconding swarms was too great. Bees 
 do not always stay hived after they are 
 hived, and when they swarm out in this 
 manner, they frequently do not cluster 
 again, but make directly for parts un- 
 known. It is true that an absconding 
 swarm can usually be stopped by throw- 
 water with a fountain pump, if the 
 swarm is seen when first starting off, and 
 there is plenty of water handy, some one 
 to bring it, and the bee-keeper is not so 
 busied just then trying to straighten out 
 a "snarl" of four or five colonies that 
 have mixed themselves together. 
 
 In a large apiary, in which the queens 
 are allowed to accompany the swarms, 
 water is the great agent by which the 
 bees can be controlled. Quite a number 
 of large pails should be keep filled with 
 water and scattered about in different 
 parts of the apiary. There should also 
 be three or four barrels of water, in dif- 
 ferent parts of the apiary. Waiting one- 
 quarter of a minute for water, sometimes 
 means the loss of a swarm. Sometimes 
 swarms go beyond the limits of the apiary; 
 then two persons are really needed; one 
 to carry water, and the other to work the 
 pump. Whitman fountain pump is the 
 best. With this a stream of water can be 
 thrown a distance of thirty or forty feet. 
 If two swarms issue at the same time they 
 can frequently be kept apart by the use 
 of the pump. It is not necessary to 
 throw a stream of water directly into the 
 center of the swarm, but along one side 
 of it, with a sort of sweeping movement 
 of the arm, that makes the stream fall 
 in a sort of shower. The bees dislike 
 the water and edge away from it. In 
 this way they can be driven in any di- 
 rection. Two or three pails of water 
 thrown in this manner upon a swarm 
 seems to disconcert them, and they then 
 begin to look for some alighting place. 
 If the operator once has a swarm well in 
 hand, and there is plenty of water at 
 
 hand and he knows how to use it, it is 
 well nigh impossible for the swarm to get 
 away. 
 
 Unless the queens are clipped, or the 
 queen trap is used, there should be no 
 tall trees near the apiary, as the swarms 
 will go where it will be difficult, even 
 dangerous, to get them. It should be 
 possible to reach the tops of the trees with 
 a long, light ladder. If the tops are no 
 higher than can be reached with a step 
 ladder, so much the better. Besides the 
 pails of water, fountain pump, and lad- 
 ders, the bee-keeper will need three or 
 four baskets. Clothes baskets are ex- 
 cellent. Upon one side should be sewed 
 a cover of burlap. When the swarm has 
 been shaken into the basket, the cover 
 can be thrown over the top of the basket 
 and will keep the bees from flying out. 
 Blocks of wood nailed to the corners of 
 the cover hold it from being blown off or 
 from dropping down into the basket, 
 should the bees cluster upon the cover. 
 If set in a cool place, a swarm may be 
 left in such a basket several hours. 
 When the hive is in readiness to receive 
 the swarm, the cover to the basket may 
 be turned back and the bees shaken down 
 in front of the hive. A few of the bees 
 soon find the entrance and set up their 
 "call" of a home is found, when the 
 others follow them into the hive. If 
 another swarm comes out and attempts 
 to join the one just entering its hive, a 
 large sheet may be thrown over the hive. 
 Where several swarms come out at the 
 same time and unite, the best that can 
 be done is to divide them up as nearly 
 equal as possible into several swarms. 
 When a. queen is found she is to be caged. 
 Any swarm that has no queen will soon 
 show its queenlessness by its restlessness. 
 The bees will begin running out of the 
 hive and taking wing. One of the caged 
 queens should be given such a swarm, 
 when, as by magic, the bees will change 
 their behavior. 
 
 When the bee-keeper has all of the 
 swarms out that he can possibly manage, 
 there is one infallible method of prevent- 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE 
 
 41 
 
 ing any more from issuing. As he works, 
 let him frequently cast his eye quickly 
 over the entire yard. The moment he 
 sees a swarm beginning to come out, let 
 him run to the hive, quickly remove the 
 supers and dash a quantity of water into 
 the hive. The effect is a mo.st radical 
 one; that swarm will not issue for at 
 least a day or two. Throwing water into 
 the brood nest is not injurious to the 
 brood or bees; as the water so used is 
 warm from having stood in the sun in the 
 pails heretofore mentioned. 
 
 I believe that the majority of advanced 
 bee-keepers now hive their swarms by 
 having the queens' wings clipped, and 
 allowing the bees to return to the old 
 location, which they will do when they 
 find that the queen is not with them. 
 Of course the queen attempts to follow 
 the bees, and is found in front of the hive 
 by the bee-keeper, who cages her, and 
 sets the old hive to one side," replacing 
 it with a new hive prepared for the oc- 
 cupancy of the swarm. When the bees 
 return, they enter the new hive, suppos- 
 ing it to be their old home, thus hiving 
 themselves. While they are entering 
 the hive, the queen is allowed to run 
 in with them — and the work is done. 
 There is another method of carrying out 
 this principle; it is that of catching the 
 queen in a trap in front of the hive. The 
 lower part of the trap is covered with 
 perforated zinc, the perforations being 
 ot such size that the workers can pass, 
 but the queen finds and passes through a 
 cone shaped opening in the upper part of 
 trap. There she finds herself in another 
 apartment, and the chance that she will 
 find the narrow mouth of the cone and 
 return is as one in a thousand. The use 
 of the trap saves clipping the queen's 
 wings, also the trouble of looking for her 
 when the swarm is out, together with the 
 possibility of her being lost. The ob- 
 jections to the trap are its cost, a slight 
 hindrance to the bees passing out and in, 
 and its. interference somewhat with the 
 ventilation of the hive. A trap placed 
 over the mouth of a hive containing a 
 
 newly hived swarm, will prevent loss 
 from "swarming out." Taking every- 
 thing into consideration, my preference 
 is clipped queens. 
 
 If only one swarm would issue at a 
 time, there would be no difficulty at all 
 in managing swarms with clipped queens. 
 When two or more swarms come out at 
 the same time, and no water is thrown 
 between them, they are almost certain to 
 unite. After circling about for awhile 
 the bees return. If each bee would re- 
 turn to its own hive, all would be well; 
 but when the bees of one swarm begin to 
 go back, a large share of the bees in the 
 air follow them. A few bees from each 
 swarm usually return to their respective 
 homes, but the majority "follow my 
 leader. " It is impossible to give any set 
 rules that may be followed in such 
 emergencies. If only two swarms have 
 united, the bees may be allowed to enter 
 until it is estimated that one-half the 
 bees are in the hive, when it may be re- 
 moved and the other hive brought and 
 put in its place. It should not be for- 
 gotten that, as a rule, other things being 
 equal, a bee will do as good work in one 
 hive as in another. Some bee-keepers, 
 when several swarms come to one place, 
 take supers from other hives, where the 
 bees are working none the best, and place 
 them upon the hive into which the bees 
 are entering. As soon as the supers are 
 full of bees they are returned to the hive 
 from whence they were taken. A colony 
 made unusually strong by uniting 
 swarms, will store a larger quantity of 
 honey, but will be no stronger at the end 
 of the season. 
 
 Another plan of managing, where sev- 
 eral swarms come out at the same time, 
 is not to allow the bees to return to hives, 
 but put the caged queens in baskets, 
 each queen in a separate basket, and hang 
 the baskets on the branches of a tree 
 where the bees show a disposition to 
 congregate. The bees soon find and 
 cluster about the queens in the baskets. 
 As soon as a queen is found with sufficient 
 bees to form a good swarm , remove that 
 
42 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 basket to a shady place and cover with 
 a cloth. Then remove the next ba.sket 
 that secures the proper quota, and so on 
 to the end. Or the bees may be allowed 
 to cluster about a single queen in a sin- 
 gle basket, and then the cluster divided 
 up, and each division furnished a queen. 
 
 And now I am going to give something 
 that, in actual practice, by a large num- 
 ber of bee-keepers, may not turn out so 
 well as represented. 
 
 Every bee-keeper knows of the dispo- 
 sition of bees 1o crawl upwards. To in- 
 duce a queen to leave a cage, turn the 
 opening up. Those who have watched 
 the motions of a clipped queen in front 
 of the hive from which a swarm has just 
 issued, have probably noticed her dis- 
 position to crawl up a spear of grass or 
 anything of this nature that she can find. 
 At a recent meeting of the Huron, Tus- 
 cola and Sanilac Co. bee-keepers, a Mr. 
 West told how it was possible to take ad- 
 vantage of this climbing disposition on 
 the part of the queen, to induce a swarm 
 with a clipped queen to cluster and re- 
 main upon a stake in front of the hive 
 from which it had issued. 
 
 This discovery was the result of an 
 accident, or rather of a lucky "happen 
 so." In front of one of his hives a mul- 
 lein had been allowed to form a stalk. 
 Coming home one day he found a swarm 
 from this hive clustered upon the mul- 
 lein stalk. He at once reasoned that the 
 queen, as she alighted in front of the 
 hive, found and climbed the mullein stalk, 
 and the swarm, upon its return, foundand 
 clustered about her. Taking a hint from 
 this he cleared away all rubbish from in 
 front of all the hives, and a few inches in 
 front of each hive he thrust into the 
 ground a branch of an apple tree. He used 
 branches perhaps an inch in diameter 
 and two feet long with a few short twigs 
 at the top. The twigs were cut off to a 
 length of four or six inches. The branch 
 was not planted in an upright position, 
 but leaning away from the mouth of the 
 hive. Then it was not in the way of the 
 workers as they passed out and in the 
 
 hive, while a swarm clustered at the top 
 would be held so far from the entrance 
 of the hive that there would be no danger 
 of its being enticed back into the hive. 
 
 This plan proved a perfect success. 
 He had practiced it for three years, and 
 one year had as many as sixty swarms, 
 and it had never failed. It seemed to me 
 that the queen might not always find the 
 tree to climb, but would crawl off in some 
 other direction, but he said not; that the 
 stake was planted just about where she 
 would naturally strike the ground when 
 leaving the hive, and she invariably 
 found and climbed the pole, and that 
 the bees clustered about her and remain- 
 ed. As the queen could not take wing 
 and the bees would not desert her, it nat- 
 urally followed that they would remain 
 until removed by the bee-keeper. 
 
 Sometimes a good thing is brought out, 
 illustrated and described, yet it falls 
 dead — does not "take." The T super 
 had a hard struggle before its merit was 
 recognized. "Bee escapes," are another 
 illustration of this truth. I well remem- 
 ber how my brother and I laughed, and 
 rolled over in the grass, when I read a 
 letter from some one who had planned a 
 bee escape. "If we can produce the hon- 
 ey, I guess we can get the bees off from 
 it," was the comment we made. It was 
 really two or three years before I could 
 bring myself to regard the bee-escape 
 seriously. I think that what is called a 
 "swarm catcher" must be placed in the 
 same category. It was first brought out 
 by a Mr. W. J. Bailey of Wisconsin. I 
 well remember how some of us pooh, 
 poohed at it. "Who would think of 
 bringing such machinery as that into the 
 yard, and then stand arcund and wait 
 for a swairm to issue so that we can fit 
 this rigging over the hive?" That is the 
 way we talked. Later, the late, lament- 
 ed B. Taylor of Minnesota took up the 
 idea and made a great success of it. 
 When I was up to Minnesota last winter, 
 attening their State convention, I found 
 several practical bee-keepers were using 
 the swarm catcher, yet, strange to say, it 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 43 
 
 has not come intQ general use. Where 
 one man is caring for a large apiary, all 
 alone, I know of no more perfect arrange- 
 ment for managing several swarms that 
 issue at nearly the same time. There is 
 no catching of queens, nor climbing of 
 trees, nor mixing of swarms. The con- 
 trol is perfect. 
 
 The catcher is simply a light frame- 
 work, about three and one- half feet long, 
 sixteen inches square at the large, or out- 
 er end, then tapered down to about three 
 by sixteen inches at the other end. The 
 outer end is closed with a removable 
 door covered with wire cloth. The rest 
 of the frame-work is covered with can- 
 vas or ducking. The small end is so 
 made that it fits nicely to the entrance of 
 a hive, and a portion of the cloth cover- 
 ing is so made as to form a sort of flap 
 that can be drawn over the mouth of the 
 
 catcher to keep the bees in after they 
 have entered. In a large apiary there 
 should be as many as half a dozen catch- 
 ers scattered about the yard. When a 
 swarm is seen issuing, a catcher is quick- 
 ly adjusted to the entrance of the s warm- 
 ing-hive. In five minutes, the whole 
 swarm is in the catcher, when the catch- 
 er is closed and set in the shade, or car- 
 ried to some cool place, like a cellar. 
 The queen is usually among the last to 
 leave the hive, so there is seldom a fail- 
 ure in catching her. If the swarms come 
 thick and fast, there is no objection to 
 leaving the swarms several hours with- 
 out hiving, provided they are not left in 
 the sun. Although there is probably no 
 necessity for it, they can be kept two 
 days in a cellar. When the bees have 
 been "cooled down" in this manner, and 
 are shaken in front of the hive that is to 
 be their home, they march in without 
 fifty bees taking wing. When swarms 
 are caught in this manner there are no 
 mixed or united swarms to separate — no 
 tangles to straighten out. It reduces the 
 hiving business to an exact system. 
 
 ^^•:>5V^^;»i«^U^^ 
 
 Foul Brood. 
 
 £/^ pv^HERE is no apiary in which 
 there is not a possibility that 
 foul brood will sometime ap- 
 pear, hence every bee-keeper 
 ought to be able to distinguish it, and to 
 know what to do when he is so unfortu- 
 nate as to find it in his apiary. From 
 reading the published descriptions, many 
 bee-keepers form exaggerated ideas of the 
 appearence of foul broodjt or rather of its 
 appearance in iis first stages. They are 
 looking for combs black with slime and 
 rottenness, a stench strong enough to 
 knock a man down and colonies dwin- 
 
 dled to handfuls. Unless the bee-keeper 
 keeps a sharp lookout, foul brood may be 
 in his apiary some time before it is known. 
 At first but few cells of diseased brood 
 will be found. It is not advisable that a 
 bee-keeper be continually opening brood 
 nests and critically examining the combs 
 for foul brood. If a colony shows signs 
 of listlessness, or many dead bees are 
 seen in front of one or more of the hives, 
 or a peculiar, unpleasant odor is noticed, 
 it would be wise to make an examination. 
 Whenever handling frames of brood it 
 would be well to glance at the brood. 
 
44 
 
 ADVANCED BBE-CULTURE. 
 
 Notice if the "pearly field" of unsealed 
 larvae is unbroken. If there are desolate 
 patches, examine more critically. If 
 some of the larvae are discolored, shape- 
 less, ropy, ill-smelling, some of the cap- 
 pings sunken, perhaps perforated, foul 
 brood is present. Perhaps the one sure 
 symptom of foul brood is the ropiness of 
 the larvae. If a splinter or tooth-pick be 
 thrust into a dead larvae, and then slowly 
 withdrawn, the matter will adhere to the 
 splinter and "string out" an inchormore 
 iu length, then break, and the two ends 
 fly back to the points of attachment. 
 Dr. A. B. Mason, who has had much ex- 
 perience with foul brood, says that he 
 has had many specimens of brood sent 
 him by men who feared their bees were 
 affected by foul brood, and when this 
 elastic, tenacious condition of the brood 
 was absent he had never hesitated to 
 place the suspected brood in a colony of 
 bees, and no harm had ever resulted. 
 
 All of the above indications will be 
 seen only during the breeding season. 
 In a strong colony, after the breeding 
 season is over, the cappings are all clear- 
 ed away, and the dead brood is entirely 
 dried up — mere scales almost of the color 
 of the comb itself , lyingfast to the lower 
 side of the cells, and drawn back more or 
 less from the openings. To tell whether 
 combs have been infected, Mr. R. D. 
 Tayler suggests that these minute scales 
 be looked for. He says : ' ' Hold the comb 
 with the bottom bar from you, in dif- 
 ferent directions^ until the light strikes 
 well into the lower sides of the cells, 
 when, if infected, the scales are very 
 evident." 
 
 Honey is the means by which the dis- 
 ease is usually carried from one hive to 
 another. Mr. Cheshire says that the ma- 
 ture bees, the queen and even the eggs 
 are infected in a diseased colony. Be 
 this as it may, where the bees of an in- 
 fected colony swarm, or are shaken from 
 their combs and put into a new or disin- 
 fected hive, and given no combs in which 
 they can store the infected honey that 
 they may have brought with them, the 
 
 brood hatched afterwards in this newly 
 formed colony remains free from disease. 
 
 When foul brood is discovered, what 
 shall be done? In the first place don't 
 "lose your head" as the saying is. Don't 
 be in such a haste to be rid of the pest, 
 that a crop of honey is lost, and the work 
 of eradication imperfectly performed. 
 What is to be specially guarded against is 
 allowing healthy colonies to have combs 
 or honey from those that are diseased. 
 Robbing is particularly to be guarded 
 against. It is for this reason that cura- 
 tive operations can be carried on success- 
 fully only during a honey flow, when bees 
 will not rob. If foul brood is discovered 
 after the honey season is over, treatment 
 must be postponed until the following 
 season. 
 
 The spraying of the combs with acids, 
 and the feeding of the bees with medica- 
 ted honey, seems to be of little avail, so 
 far as eradicating the disease is concern- 
 ed. Such treatment checks the disease, 
 but cannot be depended upon to effect a 
 cure. The only plan of treatment that 
 can be depended upon to effect a radical 
 cure, is to shake off the bees, during a 
 honey flow, into a new or scalded fcive 
 having no combs in which the bees can 
 store (and thus save up) any of the infec- 
 ted honey which they may have brought 
 with them. If there is much healthy 
 brood left in the old hive, a few bees 
 may be left to protect it, and the hive 
 allowed to stand until the brood is all 
 hatched, when the bees from several hives 
 so treated may be united in a new hive 
 and given a queen. Where the hives 
 have loose bottom boards, several hives 
 from which the bees, or nearly all of 
 them, have been taken, may be placed 
 one above the other, when, iu three 
 weeks, all of the healthy brood will have 
 hatched and will be already united in one 
 colony, when the bees can be given a new 
 hive and a queen, leaving the combs free 
 from healthy brood. 
 
 Mr. R. L. Taylor has had much ex- 
 perience with foul brood. He succeeded 
 in ridding a large apiary of the disease, 
 
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ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 45 
 
 and that without any very great pecuni- 
 ary loss. In an essay read at a meeting 
 of the Michigan State Bee-Keepers' Asso- 
 ciation, he stated at length his various 
 experiments, all of which resulted in fail- 
 ure except that of the plan just mention- 
 ed. His method of treatment was some- 
 what different, in details, from that usual- 
 ly followed. Among other things he 
 managed to secure a good crop of honey. 
 Perhaps I cannot do better than to quote 
 two or three paragraphs from his essay. 
 
 "I found in my experiments, that by 
 feeding a few pounds of honey medicated 
 with salicylic acid, in the spring — the 
 food being placed in an upper story, in a 
 capacious feeder — the disease, though 
 never cured, was completly checked, and 
 the usefulness of the colony for the pro- 
 duction of honey preserved. One colony 
 so fed, yielded, notwithstanding the foul 
 brood, twice the average of the apiary. 
 
 Another benefit of this feeding is, that 
 it practically prevents, I think, the dis- 
 semination of disease from the colony. 
 Taking advantage of this discover3', 
 after much deliberation 1 decided upon 
 the following plan of operation, as the 
 best under all circumstances. 
 
 In the spring, about the middle of May, 
 feed, as indicated above, each colony to 
 be treated, then manage the same as 
 healthy colonies until such time as the 
 brood to be reared from eggs laid will be 
 of little use in the collection of the main 
 honey crop — say thirty days from the 
 probable close of the flow from basswood, 
 then cage the queen in the hive for three 
 weeks, and, at the end of that time, move 
 back the hive, place a clean hive furnish- 
 ed with foundation on the old stand, run 
 all the bees and the released queen into 
 it, remove the old combs and hive to a 
 place of .safety, and the work is done. 
 Of course, colonies may be treatetl in the 
 same manner during any sufficient honej' 
 flow. " 
 
 When freed from bees and healthy 
 brood, the combs may be emptied of hon- 
 ey by extracting, then melted into wax. 
 Thorough boiling of the honey will kill 
 
 all the germs of foul brood, but, to make 
 assurance doubly sure, some have added 
 to the honey a small proportion of sali- 
 cylic acid. Honey thus treated may be 
 fed to the bees. The hives ought to be 
 boiled in water fifteen or twenty minutes. 
 Simply pouring boiling water upon them 
 will not answer. Some have advocated 
 the burning of the combs with no attempt 
 at saving the honey and wax. If only a 
 few colonies are to be treated, this might 
 be advisable, but the owner of a large 
 apiary quite generally affected with foul 
 brood, can well afford to take the neces- 
 sary precautions whereby the combs may 
 be saved. Whoever undertakes such a 
 job must remember, however, that "eter- 
 nal vigilance" is the price of success, 
 that one drop of the infected honey se- 
 cured by a robber bee, means disease 
 once more in the hive to which it is car- 
 ried. Some one has suggested that the 
 extracting, etc., be done down cellar. It 
 is a cool place in which to work, and the 
 bees can the more easily be kept out. 
 Others have melted up the combs at night 
 when no bees are flying. There is no 
 necessity for destroying the combs and 
 the honey they contain. If a man can 
 not or will not, exercise sufficient care, it 
 would certainly be better to burn them; 
 but, if he has "gumption" enough to suc- 
 ceed as a bee-keeper, he can save the 
 combs from destruction. It would be 
 well, however, for all to bear in mind 
 that one little "forget" may compel a 
 repetition of the "whole business." 
 
 Of late, the bee-keepers of Colorado 
 have been following a plan whereby a 
 man may keep his apiary fairly free from 
 foul brood, even though located in afoul 
 broody district. It is well known that 
 shaking the bees of a foul broody colony 
 into a clean hive, and allowing them to 
 build a new set of combs, frees them the 
 infection; well, these Western men, just 
 at swarming-time, treat eveiy colony in 
 the apiary in this manner — make a whole- 
 sale sweep of the matler. As this is done 
 at a season when the honey-flow has com- 
 menced, and there will be no more rob- 
 
46 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 bing until the season is over, the apiary 
 remains free of the disease for that season. 
 It is simply forced swarming on a whole- 
 sale scale. The old hives are given new 
 locations, perhaps the combs of two or 
 more colonies are put together on one 
 stand. At the end of three weeks, the 
 brood has all hatched, when the combs 
 are again shaken free from bees, the lat- 
 ter, of course, going back into the hive 
 and building new combs, thus establish- 
 ing colonies that are free from the dis- 
 ease. The honey is then extracted from 
 the combs and the latter rendered into 
 wax. It is asserted that the wax will pay 
 for the labor, while the brood combs are 
 
 built a/ a/nj/£<. After my experience, 
 as given in the chapter on the use of comb 
 foundation, I can well believe the asser- 
 tion. I believe that this plan can be suc- 
 cessfiilly followed in the East as well as 
 in the West; although, of course, the 
 Western harvest is much longer than 
 ours. 
 
 Perhaps it ought to be mentioned that, 
 in the first shaking, the combs are not 
 entirely freed from beeS, some being left 
 to care for the unsealed brood; and cau- 
 tion should be exercised that the work be 
 not done too early in the season when 
 there would be danger of chilled brood 
 or from robbers. 
 
 The Use and Abuse of Comb Foundation. 
 
 ^.^ P>^HAT foundation has been a boon 
 to bee-keepers, no one doubts; 
 that money expended in its pur- 
 ^-^ chase is often returned many 
 fold is equally true; but such is not al- 
 ways the case. All through the working 
 season wax is being secreted to a greater 
 or less extent. If not utilized it is lost. 
 Of course, bees that fill themselves full 
 of honey and hang in clustering festoons 
 secrete wax to a very much greater extent 
 than those engaged in bringing in hon- 
 ey. The bees of a swarm will nearly al- 
 ways, if not always, be found with large 
 wax scales in the wax pockets. Having 
 found that foundation is used at a profit 
 in some places and at some ' times, the 
 bee-keeping world seems to have decided, 
 with almost no experiments, that bees 
 ought never be allowed to build comb. 
 
 Years ago I practiced hiving swarms 
 on empty combs, upon foundation, and 
 upon empty frames — empty except start- 
 ers of foundation. The first swarm was 
 hived upon comb, the second upon foun- 
 
 dation, and the third upon starters only. 
 This order was continued, the first year 
 it was tried, until fifteen swarms were 
 hived, when the use of empty combs was 
 discontinued, as it was only too evident 
 that they were used at a loss. I have ref- 
 erence here to what was used in the brood 
 nest in hiving swarms when raising comb 
 honey. The difficulty with drawn combs 
 is just this: Before the queen will lay in 
 old combs, the cells must be cleaned out 
 and "varnished" until they shine; and 
 long ere this, esspecially if there is a good 
 flow of honey, they will be badly needed, 
 and will be used, for storage. In other 
 words, combs are ready for honey before 
 they are ready for eggs, and the bees fill 
 the combs at once with honey, when, from 
 some perversity of bee nature, work, in 
 many instances, comes to a stand still. 
 Having filled the body of the hive, the 
 bees seem disinclined to make a start in 
 the sections. Where hees commence stor- 
 ing their surplus, there they seem in- 
 clined to continue to store it; and let the 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CUIvTURE. 
 
 47 
 
 bees once get the start of the queen, by 
 clogging the broo(i-nest with honey, and 
 that colony becomes practically worth- 
 less for the production of comb honey. 
 
 The advantages of full sheets of foun- 
 dation over starters, or vice versa, were 
 not so apparent, and until the close of 
 the season, an equal number of swarms 
 were hived upon foundation and upon 
 starters. Enough was proved the first 
 season to show that, so far as surplus was 
 concerned, nothing was gained by using 
 foundation in the brood nest, except for 
 starters, when hiving swarms. I have 
 since continued to experiment, year after 
 year, by hiving swarms alternately upon 
 foundation and upon empty combs, 
 weighing both surplus and brood-nests 
 at the end of the season, and the evi- 
 dence has been in favor of empty frames 
 every time. Oceasionally I have hived a 
 swarm on empty combs, but the loss has 
 always been so great, that it seems like 
 folly to repeat it. 
 
 When full sheets of foundation are 
 used in the brood-nest, and the brood- 
 nest is so contracted that some of the 
 bees must enter the sections, and the 
 sections are filled with drawn comb, or 
 partly drawn comb, the honey must, from 
 necessity, be stored in the supers until 
 the foundation can be drawn out; and 
 even then, having commenced work in 
 the sections, the bees will not desert 
 them. But there is only one queen fur- 
 nishing eggs, while hundreds of busy, 
 eager workers are pulling away with 
 might and main drawing the foundation 
 out into comb, and the time eventually 
 comes when there are thousands of empty 
 cells in the brood-nest. Now nature has 
 no greater abhorrence of a vacuum than 
 has a bee of an empty cell during a flood 
 of honey; and, although the general or- 
 ders are "up stairs with the honey," no 
 cells in the brood-nest are left empty 
 very lonp. Especially is this true with a 
 deep brood-nest and yellow Italians. 
 
 If a swarm is hived upon frames with 
 starters only, the first step is, necessarily, 
 the building of comb. Now, if a super 
 
 filled with drawn, or partly drawn, comb 
 {not foundation) is placed over the hive, 
 the bees will begin storing honey in the 
 combs at the same time that comb build- 
 ing is begun below. A queen excluder 
 must be used to keep the queen out of 
 the supers, then she will be ready with 
 her eggs the moment a few cells are part- 
 ly finished in the brood nest, and, if the 
 latter has been properly contracted, she 
 will easily keep pace with the comb 
 building. The result is that nearly all 
 of the honey goes into the supers, where 
 it is stored in the most marketable shape, 
 and the combs in the brood-nest are fill- 
 ed almost entirely with brood. When 
 bees are hived upon empty frames, a 
 small brood nest is imperatively neces- 
 sary, otherwise large qualities of honey 
 will be stored therein, and when bees 
 build comb to store honey, particularly 
 if the yield is good, they usually build 
 drone comb. They probably do this be- 
 cause storage can thus be secured with 
 the least expenditure of time, labor and 
 material. So long as the queen keeps 
 pace with the comb builders, worker 
 comb is usually built, but if the brood- 
 nest is so large that bees begin hatching 
 from its center before the bees have fill- 
 ed it with comb, and the queen returns to 
 re-fill the cells being vacated by the 
 hatching bees, the comb builders are 
 quite like to change from worker to drone 
 comb. 
 
 No fairer question could be asked than: 
 What are the advantages of this system ? 
 In reply I will say that, in the first place, 
 the foundation is saved; but although 
 this is a great saving, it comes about in- 
 cidentally, as the non-use of foundation 
 is only a means to an end, and that is the 
 profitable isecuring of the greatest possi- 
 ble amount of honey in the most market- 
 able shape; leaving the brood-nest so free 
 from honey that no extracting is needed 
 when the time comes for feeding sugar 
 for winter stores. Those who for any 
 reason do not wish to use sugar, may 
 still take advantage of this system by 
 putting the unfinished sections back on 
 
48 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 the hives in time for the honey to be 
 carried down and stored in the brood- 
 nest for winter. Or a case of brood 
 combs may be put on over the sections as 
 the harvest draws to a close, instead of 
 putting on another case of sections. 
 This will do away with nearly all unfinish- 
 ed sections, and the case of filled brood 
 combs can be given the colony at the 
 end of the season in place of its em- 
 pty combs. By either plan, the number 
 oi finished sections is increased. 
 
 The objection to this plan is that it 
 cannot be depended upon to produce per- 
 fect brood combs. I think I am safe in 
 saying that I have had thousands of 
 combs built under this management, and 
 I think at least eighty per cent, of them 
 were as perfect as it would be possible 
 to secure by the use of foundation. A 
 much larger percentage were perfect when 
 I was using mostly the Langstroth frame, 
 and contracted the brood nest to only 
 five frames. This made the top of the 
 brood nest, where the bees commenced 
 their combs, so small that the bees com- 
 pletely covered it. All of the combs 
 were commenced at the same time. As a 
 rule, they were as nearly perfect as pos- 
 sible, at least so far as straightness was 
 concerned. When I came to using the 
 new Heddon hive more extensively, I 
 discovered that the greater surface at 
 the top allowed room for the starting of 
 more combs, that the outside combs 
 would not always be started so soon as 
 the center ones, and this sometimes re- 
 sulted in a slight bulging of some of the 
 combs. Perhaps the outer comb would 
 be a trifle thinner and used largely for 
 storage. The comb next to it would 
 bend out slightly to match the lack of 
 thickness in the outside comb. As the 
 frames in the new Heddon hive are placed 
 nearer together than one and one-half 
 inches (the natural distance at which 
 bees place their combs apart) I have 
 sometimes thought the bees, in their efforts 
 to get the combs wider apart (one and 
 one-half inches from center to center) 
 bulged or built the comb of one frame 
 slightly into the space that rightfully 
 
 belonged to the adjoining comb, and then 
 this adjoining comb must needs be built 
 into the space belonging to the next comb, 
 and so on. When full sheets of founda- 
 tion are used, the bees are, of course, 
 compelled to build their combs where 
 the foundation is placed. 
 
 Sometimes drone comb would be built, 
 even in spite of contracted brood nests. 
 Usually this was the result of old queens. 
 But then, we can't always have young 
 queens, hence I can only repeat that this 
 method gives most excellent results in 
 the way of surplus, but cannot be de- 
 pended upon to furnish perfect brood 
 combs. So well pleased was I with this 
 system that, four years ago, I wrote and 
 published a little book in which this 
 method was described in detail. Three 
 thousand copies were sold, the methods 
 advised were largely tried, and were 
 freely discussed in the journals, all suc- 
 ceeded ii; getting good crops of honey, 
 but some failed in getting perfect brood 
 combs. Some keep watch of the brood 
 combs while they are being built, cutting 
 out crooked or drone comb, and using it 
 in the sections. I cannot think favorably 
 of such work. When I hive a swarm, I 
 wish that to be the end of the matter. 
 No opening of brood nests, and puttering 
 with imperfect combs during the hurly 
 burly of swarming time would be desir- 
 able for me. But I do think favorably of 
 a plan advi.sed by Mr. H. R. Boardman, 
 that of contracting the brood nest when 
 hiving a swarm, and then uniting the 
 swarm with the parent colony at the end 
 of the season. This allows the newly 
 built combs to be sorted over and the 
 imperfect ones culled out and rendered 
 into wax. 
 
 If securing straight all-worker comb is 
 not the greatest benefit arising from the 
 use of foundation, it is certainly next 
 to the greatest. The advantages of hav- 
 ing each comb a counterpart of all the 
 others, to be able to place any comb in 
 any hive, in short, to have each inter- 
 changable with all the others, and to be 
 able to control the production of drones, 
 to have them reared from such stock as 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 49 
 
 we d-^sire, and in such quantities, no 
 more and no less, all these are advan- 
 tages that cannot be ignored, even at the 
 cost of filling our frames with foundation, 
 and securing a little less surplus. We 
 must have straight, worker combs. If 
 they can be secured without foundation 
 well and good; if not, it must be used. 
 By using weak colonies, or queen rearing 
 nuclei, or by feeding bees in the fall, 
 straight, all-worker combs may be secur- 
 ed at a profit. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest immediate profit 
 arising from the use of foundation, is not 
 so much in the saving of honey that 
 would otherwise have been used in the 
 elaboration of wax, as in the quickness 
 with which it enables the bees to furnish 
 storage for honey. When bees are stor- 
 ing honey slowly, the wax that they se- 
 crete without consuming honey express- 
 ly for that purpose, probably furnishes 
 sufficient material, and there is probably 
 abundant time, for the building of 
 comb in which to store the honey. As 
 the flow of honey increases, the hand- 
 ling of larger quantities of nectar increas- 
 es the natural or involuntary wax secre- 
 tion; but, as the yield of honey increases, 
 a point is reached when honey must be 
 consumed expressly that wax may be 
 secreted. It is quite likely that, at this 
 point, foundation may be used at a prof- 
 it to aid the bees in furnishing storage. 
 
 When the yield is so great that the bees 
 cannot secrete wax and build comb with 
 sufficient rapidity to store all the honey 
 that they might gather, then foundation 
 is certainly used at a profit. Further- 
 more, I have seen the yield of honey so 
 bountiful that even foundation did not 
 answer the purpose; the bees could not 
 draw it out fast enough to furnish storage 
 for all of the honey that could have been 
 brought in. At such times, drawn combs 
 are needed. 
 
 It will be seen that this question of 
 foundation is one to which there may be 
 profitably given much thought and ex- 
 perimentation. If the bee-keeper lives 
 where the honey flow is light, but, per- 
 haps prolonged, he will find it more prof- 
 itable to allow his bees to build their own 
 combs. If he can't get perfect brood 
 combs, he certainly can allow the bees to 
 build their combs for the surplus comb 
 honey. If honey comes in "floods," as 
 it sometimes does in some localities, the 
 man who allows his bees to build their 
 store combs unaided at such a time, loses 
 dollars and dollars. If foundation is 
 needed only for the sake of securing 
 straight worker combs, it need not nec- 
 essarially be heavy. All foundation in 
 brood frames, upon which swarms are 
 hived, should be wired to prevent sag- 
 ging and breaking down. 
 
 Queen Rearing. 
 
 T~T Y7 EARLY all who keep bees do so 
 \\ IJ for the honey the bees gather, 
 / vl ^"'' there are quite a number of 
 ^-^ v^ apiarists, who keep bees to rear 
 queens for sale. For several years I made 
 a specialty of queen rearing, securing no 
 comb honey; what little honey could be 
 extracted from the nuclei iu the basswood 
 flow, being all the honey secured. Queen 
 
 rearing, if rightly managed, is more 
 profitable, according to the number of 
 colonies employed, than is the raising of 
 honey, provided there is a ready sale for 
 queens. Taking one year with another, 
 however, a man can make more money, 
 in this locality, by having enough bees to 
 keep him fully employed when engaged 
 in the production of honey. One great 
 
50 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 drawback to profitable queen rearing in 
 the North, is the shortness of the season. 
 If I were intending to make queen rear- 
 ing my business for life, I should think 
 seriously of moving to some one of the 
 Southern States. The income from queen 
 rearing is more of a certainty than that 
 from honey production. If the blossoms 
 yield sparingly, no surplus can be secured , 
 but nearly, or quite, as many queens can 
 be reared. The number of queens that 
 can be reared is more a question of time 
 than of honey flow. Although a steady 
 and moderate flow of honey is the most 
 desirable for queen rearing, yet queens 
 can be reared, and at a profit too, by 
 feeding the bees. 
 
 The great expense in queen rearing is 
 that of nuclei for keeping the queens un- 
 til they are fertilized and laying. Get- 
 ting of the cells is not expensive. If I 
 were in the queen business I should be 
 willing to furnish cells just read}' to hatch, 
 or just hatched virgin queens, at ten cents 
 each. Advertising, cages, postage, etc., 
 all cost something, but I doubt if all these, 
 combined with the cost of cells, equal 
 the expense for nuclei. I think a great 
 many have their queen rearing nuclei 
 stronger than is really necessary. With 
 large combs this may be necessary, but 
 if queen rearing is to be a specialty, let 
 the hives, combs, and other appliances be 
 adapted to the business. I have always 
 admired the small combs used by Mr. 
 Alle}'. They are only about four or five 
 inches square, and three or four in a 
 hive. Half the bees that would cover 
 one Langstroth comb would stock such a 
 nucleus. I have often thought I should 
 like to engage in queen rearing, using 
 sections an inch and a-half wide for frames, 
 and the old style Heddon surplus case 
 for a nucleus hive, having four nuclei in 
 each case. I have used sections for combs, 
 and put them in an old style Heddon 
 case for a hive, making eight little nuclei 
 in each super, and used them for keeping 
 laying queens when there was a dearth 
 of orders. I used three sections for each 
 nucleus. The queen would fill the 
 (.ombs with eggs in about a day, and then 
 
 go over them again. About this time 
 there would be discontent and swarming- 
 out; and the only way to remedy this was 
 to cover each entrance with a piece of 
 queen-excluding zinc which would pre- 
 vent the queen from leaving the hive; 
 when, of course, the bees would return. 
 Quite a number of queen breeders have, 
 of late, been successful in getting queens 
 fertilized in these little nuclei, placed 
 over a full colony, the latter furnishing 
 the needed heat that these small clusters 
 of bees seem unable to generate. 
 
 Mr. Doolittle makes artificial 
 ■en cells, or rather the base 
 cells, by dipping a round- 
 iiited stick into melted wax, 
 owing the wax to cool, then 
 )ping again, not quite so deep- 
 ami continuing the process 
 til the wax is of sufficient 
 ckness, when it is slipped off 
 ; stick. These little wax 
 ps are stuck to a stick, and 
 :o each cup is transferred a 
 5t hatched larvse from the egg 
 some choice queen. A little 
 oyal jelly" is also placed 
 3uud each larvae, when the 
 ck is fastened into a frame of 
 I mb, an opening being made 
 the comb, beneath the cells, 
 d the frame hung in a colony 
 epared for cell building. The 
 es proceed to nurse the larvae 
 d finish up the cells, and 
 hen they are "ripe," the cells 
 n be pulled off the stick as 
 sily as we pull cherries from 
 branch. 
 
 Mr. Alley cuts comb contain- 
 "K sggs into strips, then de- 
 stroys each alternate egg by introducing 
 into the cell the brimstone end of a match 
 and giving it a twirl. Each strip of comb 
 is fastened into a small frame and given 
 to queenless bees. 
 
 The advantage of these methods are 
 that one choice queen may be made to 
 furnish eggs for all the cells that can pos- 
 sibly be needed, and each cell is built by 
 itself. Unless some such precautions are 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE, 
 
 51 
 
 taken, the cells are often built in clusters, 
 and it is impossible to separate the cells 
 without destroying some of them. 
 
 I have not tried either of these methods. 
 They seem too "fussy." My method of 
 getting cells is to remove the queen from 
 a populous colony and leave the bees un- 
 disturbed for six or seven days. By this 
 time cells will be started, and nearly all 
 of the larvae will be sealed. Young bees 
 will be hatching in abundance, but there 
 will be only a small quantity of brood to 
 be nursed, and in a day or two there will 
 be none. All of the queen cells that have 
 been started are cut out aud a comb of 
 just hatching larvae, from a choice queen, 
 is given. To secure this comb of larvae, 
 a dry, clean comb (one built the previous 
 year is preferable) is placed in the center 
 of the brood nest of a desirable colony 
 about four days before the comb will be 
 needed. All around the edge of the 
 patch of just hatching larvae, I cut holes 
 an inch in diameter. Around these holes 
 the bees build the queen cells, usually 
 three or four at each hole. Of course 
 this method mutilates the combs, but, in 
 a good honey flow, the bees will soon re- 
 fill the holes. About the ninth day after 
 the comb of eggs was given, it is removed, 
 leaned against the side of the hive, ' and 
 the cells carefully cut out; smoke being 
 used, when necessary, to drive the bees 
 out of the way. The comb is then re- 
 turned, and another comb of just hatch- 
 ing eggs given. It will be noticed that 
 young bees are continually hatching in 
 this colony, and all the brood there is to 
 nurse is in the one comb that is given. 
 A colony so treated will build three 
 batches of good cells, and I then give it a 
 queen. 
 
 Nothing is gained by commencing 
 queen rearing operations before steady 
 warm weather has set in. In this latitude, 
 about the loth of May is usually early 
 enough to have queen cells started. To 
 secure good cells, IhVee things are nec- 
 essary; warmth, food in abundance, and 
 plenty of young bees. Early in the sea- 
 son, when the brood is i?icreasing all the 
 time, simply removing the queen from 
 
 a colony does not always result in the 
 best of cells. Later in the season, just 
 at swarming time, for instance, quite 
 good cells can often be secured by this 
 plan. One great objection to this plan 
 seems to be that the bees, in their im- 
 patience to secure another queen, some- 
 times choose larvae that are too old. 
 
 Batches of cells should be started at 
 regular intervals, and there must be no 
 forgetfulness in regard to dates. It is 
 well to have a large calendar hung in 
 a conspicuous place, and the dates and 
 hive numbers marked thereon. It is a 
 difficult matter to so calculate that there 
 shall always be enough laying queens to 
 fill orders, and enough young queens or 
 mature cells to replace them, and none 
 left over. When a breeder has orders 
 ahead all of the time, he can very nearly 
 make things come out even, but not al- 
 ways. A spell of cool weather, or a stop- 
 page in the honey flow, may cause a de- 
 lay in the queens' beginning to lay, and 
 then there will be no place to put the 
 newly hatched queens. Hot weather or 
 a honey flow may bring opposite results. 
 It is best, however, to always have on 
 hand an abundance of cells even if quite 
 a number of their occupants must eventu- 
 ally be destroyed. With one hundred 
 nuclei I have found it a safe plan to start 
 a batch of cells each day. 
 
 After the cells are taken from the hive 
 they are placed in a lamp nursery, where 
 the queens hatch in three or four days. 
 During the day, the lamp nursery is ex- 
 amined about once in two hours. Just 
 at twilight the room is darkened and each 
 cell passed before an aperature in the 
 window shade. Any queen that will 
 hatch before morning can usually be de- 
 tected — will make some movement with 
 a leg — and may be placed in a cage or 
 apartment by herself. I had sixteen little 
 boxes, two inches square, put into a single 
 wide frame that could be hung in the 
 nursery. Each box had a glass door, 
 fastened on by a piece of cloth pasted on, 
 and held shut by a pin driven into the 
 wood and then bent over the door. To 
 open the door, the pin was turned to one 
 
52 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 side. When a cell was found containing 
 a queen that "kicked" it was placed in 
 one of these little compartments with 
 glass doors. A little food in the shape 
 of "Good candy" was placed in the cor- 
 ner of each compartment. The nursery 
 was examined early in the morning, and 
 by this management, very few cells were 
 destroyed. 
 
 About three or four days before the 
 first queens are to hatch, enough colonies 
 should be made queenless to furnish bees 
 for the nuclei, as queenless bees will ad- 
 here much better to a new location. I 
 would have at least two combs in each 
 nucleus, one of honey and one of brood. 
 Very early in the season it may be well to 
 give three combs, dividing the nucleus 
 later on. When the nuclei are made up, 
 it may be well to shut the bees in until 
 dark. Many of the old bees will return, 
 but as most of the brood is sealed, enough 
 bees (if they are queenless) will remain. 
 When making up nuclei, if the bees have 
 been queenless, I would give each nucleus 
 a cell nearly ready to hatch, or a 
 young queen, at the time of making 
 the nuclei, as it seems to be something of 
 an inducement for the bees to remain in 
 the new location. As many bees return 
 to the old stand, I leave some brood and 
 honey in the hive, also put in some empty 
 combs and give the bees a laying queen. 
 This colony soon builds up and prospers. 
 
 When a queen begins laying, she is al- 
 lowed to fill the combs with eggs before 
 shipment, then if a young queen is intro- 
 duced soon after her removal, the nucleus 
 receives another "sitting" of eggs in ten 
 days more. By this management all nuclei 
 are kept supplied with brood. One ob- 
 jection to very small nuclei is that the 
 combs are very soon filled with eggs; 
 then the queen goes over them a second 
 time and re-fills them, putting two or 
 more eggs in a cell. After this there is 
 discontent, and it often happens that 
 "swarming out" is the result. When 
 very small nuclei are used', the queens 
 must be removed soon after beginning to 
 lay. 
 
 When honey is coming in freely I have 
 lost few queens by allowing the newly 
 hatched queen to run into a. nucleus at 
 the same time the laying queen was re- 
 moved. After a queen has been hatched 
 two days it is rather difficult to introduce 
 her, unless the nucleus has been queen- 
 less two or three days. Mr. Alley makes 
 a success of introducing these old (?) vir- 
 gin queens by first smoking the bees with 
 tobacco smoke until they begin to show 
 signs of stupefaction. If virgin queens 
 four days old could thus be introduced, 
 it would be a great saving of time, as a 
 laying queen could be secured just that 
 much of tener from each nucleus. 
 
 As a "-ule, a queen begins laying when 
 ten days old, but hot weather and a good 
 flow of honey often .shortens this period. 
 I have frequently had them lay at eight 
 days old, and in a very few instances at 
 seven. During a drouth, when no honey 
 was to be gathered, I have known queens 
 to be three weeks old before laying. At 
 such times as this it certainly pays the 
 queen breeder to feed nuclei in which 
 there are queens old enough to lay. When 
 engaged in queen rearing, I had some 
 shallow boxes, each of which was just 
 large enough to cover the top of a nucleus. 
 The boxes were filled half full of candy, 
 and when a nucleus was found during a 
 dearth of honey, containing a queen old 
 enough to lay, but not laying, one of 
 these boxes of candy was inverted over 
 the nucleus. Two days later the queen 
 would invaribly be found laying. 
 
 A queen rearing nucleus ought to be 
 examined every three or four days. 
 First, it ought to be examined about 
 three days after a young queen is released 
 to see if she has been accepted; then again 
 in four or five days to see if she has been 
 lost in taking her "weddingflight;" again 
 in three days to see if she is laying. In 
 all these examinations it is unnecessary 
 to find the queen, simply look at the un- 
 sealed brood. If no queen cells are start- 
 ed, it is safe to assume that the queen is 
 present. If a young queen is introduced 
 soon after the laying queen is removed. 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 53 
 
 she will be fertilized before the brood of 
 her predecessor is sealed. If one little 
 piece of advice is heeded by the queen 
 brjeder, it will save him a world of 
 trouble and annoyance, and that is, never 
 leave a nucleus without unsealed brood. 
 If all goes well, it is seldom necessary to 
 give unsealed brood to a nucleus, but if a 
 young queen is killed or is lost when she 
 leaves the hive to mate, then it will be 
 necessary to introduce brood before the 
 next queen will be furnishing eggs. 
 When visiting nuclei, I always carry a 
 box containing eggs or young brood in 
 comb cut up in small pieces, about an 
 inch square. Whenever a nucleus is 
 found without brood, a hole is cut in one 
 of the combs and one of the pieces of 
 comb containing brood is given. In 
 making examinations, all. that it is nec- 
 essary to look at, is this piece of brood. 
 If queep cells a'-e started, it means that 
 the bees are queenless; if there are no 
 cells, it means that a queen is present. 
 If this course is faithfully followed, there 
 will be no trouble from those pests of 
 careless queen breeders, fertile workers. 
 
 Nearly all queens that are lost when 
 out to mate, meet their fate by entering 
 the wrong hive. I don't remember hav- 
 ing lost a queen when a nucleus stood in 
 some out of the way place. I,et queen 
 breeders scatter their nuclei in all out of 
 the way places imaginable; have no nuclei 
 in rows or in any regular order. If there 
 are no trees or other land marks in the 
 apiary, make some. Set out some trees 
 or bring in some large boxes or barrels 
 and scatter them about — anything to 
 give each nucleus a distinctive location. 
 
 In the shipping of queens, success turns 
 largely on the food used. I have used 
 no food that is superior to the "Good 
 candy,'' which is made by mixing honey 
 and pulverized sugar until it is the con- 
 sistency of a stiff dough. The novice will 
 be likely to make it too thin. It is well 
 nigh impossible to mix in too much sugar. 
 The maker may think it quite hard and 
 dry, but he will be surprised the next 
 day to find it quite soft aud pliable. 
 
 As a shipping cage, I think the Benton 
 stands at the head. It has three com- 
 partments all in a row and connected by 
 openings. In one of the end compart- 
 ments is placed the food; the other two 
 are occupied by the bees, but the one 
 next to the food is not ventilated, while 
 the one in the end opposite from the food 
 
 THE PRATT-BBNTON CAGE. 
 
 is freely ventilated. Very properly this 
 cage has been called the "climatic cage," 
 as it enables the bees to accomodate 
 themselves to changes of weather. If it 
 is cool they can occupy the central apart- 
 ment; if warm, they can remain in the 
 ventilated part of the cage. Some minor 
 improvements have been made in this 
 cage by Mr. Pratt, and as it is now made 
 by Mr. Costellow I think it is what is 
 claimed for it — "Perfection." 
 
 As to the number of bees to send in a 
 cage with a queen, that depends upon the 
 time of the year. In the spring and fall 
 more are needed; but I doubt if more than 
 thirty bees are ever needed; in warm wea- 
 ther one-third that number is sufficient. 
 
 With a large number of nuclei, it is im- 
 possible to remember the condition in 
 which each was left at the last visit. A 
 record of some kind must be kept, and I 
 know of nothing better than the "Queen 
 Registering Cards" sold by A. I. Root. 
 They are made of paper similar to postal 
 cards, and will stand the weather. A 
 card is tacked upon the side of each 
 nucleus. Upon each card are three dials. 
 One contains the months, one the days 
 of the month, and one the following 
 words: "Eggs," "Brood," "Cells," 
 "Hatched," "Laying" and "Missing." 
 Common pins are used as pointers. 
 About yg of the point is bent at right an- 
 gle J and then driven into the center of 
 the dial. When a cell is given, one point- 
 
54 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURfi. 
 
 er is turned to the month, another to the 
 day of the month and the third to the 
 word "Cell." If the queen is found 
 hatched at the next examination, the 
 date is changed, and the pin turned to 
 "Hatched." When found laying, and 
 again when taken out and shipped, the 
 pointers are turned correspondingly. A 
 glance at the register always shows the 
 
 condition of the nucleus at the last exam- 
 ination. These registering cards are sim- 
 ply indispensable. 
 
 Successful queen rearing does not call 
 for any great out lay of physical strength, 
 but consists rather of constant attention 
 to a thousand and one little details; and 
 the man who is not "cutout" for this 
 kind of work will not succeed. 
 
 ^^^■:^'^^^km:^^^^f<^ 
 
 How to Produce Good Extracted Honey. 
 
 believe it is generally admitted that 
 more extracted than comb honey is 
 secured because the bees have no 
 •'-^ combs to build. No honey is con- 
 sumed expressly to produce wax, the 
 comb builders are released for other 
 labors, and, above all, when the honey 
 flow is abundant, there is plenty of store 
 room. It has been said that the produc- 
 tion of comb honey requires greater skill 
 than does the raising of extracted honey. 
 Be this as it may, the securing of a. good 
 article of extracted honej' calls for 
 knowledge of no small degree. 
 
 What is it that gives to honey its val- 
 ue? It is not simply its sweetness, 
 which is of low power; but it is its fine 
 flavor and its rich aroma. These are the 
 qualities that make honey what it is — a 
 luxury — and, if we wish its use, as a sweet 
 sauce, continued, we must learn to raise 
 and care for it in such a manner that its 
 ambrosial, palate tickling qualities will 
 be preserved. Freshly gathered nectar 
 is usually one of the most "silly" tasting 
 and sickening of sweets. To be sure it 
 has the flavor of the flowers from which 
 it was gathered; but that smooth, rich, 
 oily, honey taste, that lingers in the 
 mouth, must be furnished by the bees. 
 Honey extracted when "green," and 
 evaporated in the open air, is not only 
 
 lacking in the element that comes from 
 the secretions of the bees, but its blossom- 
 flavor is half lost by evaporation. ■ To be 
 sure, evaporation must take place if left 
 in the hive, but evaporation in the open 
 air, and evaporation in the aroma-laden 
 atmosphere of the hive, produce differ- 
 ent results. 
 
 One reason why comb honey is, in so 
 many instances, found to be more deli- 
 cious than the extracted, is because the 
 former is more thoroughly ripened. Sel- 
 dom do we find extracted honey equal to 
 that dripping from and surrounding the 
 section of comb honey that is being 
 carved upon a plate. Many of those who 
 produce extracted honey in large quantir 
 ties, extracting before it is thoroughly 
 ripened, admit that such honey is inferi- 
 or, as a table sauce, to that ripened by 
 the bees, but say they cannot afford to 
 produce the best article possible. It 
 costs more, but will sell for no more in 
 the general market. The raising of ex- 
 tracted honey to be shipped away for 
 some commission man to sell, is much 
 like making butter to be sold at a coun- 
 try store. All brings the same price. 
 There is little incentive to produce a su- 
 perior article. White extracted honey 
 brings so much, dark so much. The 
 honey with the fine, delicate flavor, the 
 
Advanced bee-culture. 
 
 55 
 
 thoroughly bee-ripened, well preserved, 
 superior article will not bring one cent 
 more in the general market, than ordin- 
 ary, pretty good honey. Perhaps, for 
 manufacturing purposes, there is no ad- 
 vantage in having such a superior article, 
 but for table sauce there is; and the only 
 way in which the man who raises a really 
 superior article can hope to receive pay 
 for his trouble, is by selling direct to 
 consumers, or by establishing a reputa- 
 tion for his honey among dealers and 
 their customers. For a man who is so 
 situated that he can make such a market 
 for his extracted honey, I will now go 
 over the ground and tell, as concisely as 
 possible, how to raise, in the cheapest 
 manner, extracted honey that will be the 
 equal of that that drips from the delicate 
 morsel of comb at the tea table. 
 
 Until the time of putting on the supers, 
 the management is the same as that in 
 the production of comb honey. In the 
 supers I would use shallow combs, and 
 practice tiering up, the same as in raising 
 comb honey. Right here comes in an 
 advantage not present in raising comb 
 honey; iu tiering up, we need not wait 
 for the honey to be sealed. Most bee- 
 keepers know that honey is seldom sealed 
 until it is ripened, but all do not 
 know that it may be ripe, and yet not 
 sealed. In fact, the ripening process 
 may be hastened, or made more com- 
 plete, if the sealing can be prevented. 
 In other words, the ripening process 
 goes on more slowly after the cells are 
 capped, and would not go on at all were 
 it not that the cappings are more or less 
 porous. By raising up these shallow sets 
 of combs as fast as they are filled, and 
 putting another set under thero, those 
 the farthest advanced are kept at the top, 
 and the inclination to capping thereby 
 discouraged. If the honey can become 
 thoroughly ripened, with perhaps only 
 one-third or one-half of the cells sealed, 
 what a saving there is in uncapping ! If 
 I had plenty of combs, I would leave the 
 honey in the hive until the yield from 
 one source was over. It might be pos- 
 
 sible to have yields so abundant and pro- 
 longed as to render this plan undesired, 
 but, usually, plenty of combs would al- 
 low of. its adoption. Just notice with 
 how little labor this can be managed; we 
 have only to watch and give additional 
 room when it is needed, and hive the 
 very few swarms that issue. I would 
 use a queen excluder; then, when ready 
 to extract, there would be no brood in 
 the way. 
 
 One of the most tedious performances 
 attending the raising of extracted honey, 
 is the getting of the bees off the combs. 
 The smoking, and shaking, and brush- 
 ing, accompanied by robber pests if the 
 work is done after the harvest is over, a 
 a scalding sun overhead, make up a 
 combination that is very trying to the 
 "nerves." There is now but little doubt, 
 that the bee escape will yet relieve the 
 bee-keeper of all this unDleasantness. It 
 will only be necessary to go around at 
 dusk and slip a thin board, containing a 
 bee escape, under each upper story. In 
 the morning each upper story with a bee 
 escape under it will be found free of bees, 
 and can be taken off and wheeled into 
 the extracting room. 
 
 When extracting with an ordinary ex- 
 tractor, quite a little time is spent in tak- 
 ing out the combs and t,urning them. 
 The automatic, reversible machine saves 
 this time. Some bee-keepers believe that 
 there will yet be substantial improve- 
 ments in extractors. Already experi- 
 ments are being made with a view to 
 making a machine in which the combs 
 may be reversed without stopping the 
 machine. 
 
 After the honey has been thoroughly 
 ripened, and is extracted, and found to 
 be in possession of all the fine qualities I 
 have mentioned, what shall be done with 
 it ? How shall it be treated that it may 
 retain its flavor ? The key to success in 
 this direction is exclusion of the air. 
 Seal it up in glass jars or tin cans, or in 
 clean barrels. My preference is the 60- 
 Ib., square, tin can, with screw cap, and, 
 when shipped, a jacket of wood. Some 
 
56 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 dealers say that barrels or half barrels 
 are as good as anything in which to ship 
 honey. 
 
 Upon the approach of cool weather, 
 honey will candy; and if sealed up tight 
 and put away in a cool place, will remain 
 in this condition for years; and when 
 slowly and carefully brought back to its 
 liquid state, will be found to have retain- 
 ed its original "flavor aroma and boquet." 
 
 This is not the proper place in which 
 to discuss the marketing of honey, but I 
 wish to say that I believe that nearly 
 every one prefers extracted honey in its 
 liquid state, and that it should be put 
 upon the market and sent to consumers 
 in this condition. It should be liquefied 
 just before shipment to consumers. For 
 this reason it is an advantage if the ves- 
 sel in which it is stored, and in which it 
 IS to be shipped, is also one in which it 
 can be melted. 
 
 Perhaps I ought not to leave this sub- 
 ject without placing more emphasis up- 
 on the liability of injuring candied honey 
 when reliquefying it, and to do this I 
 cannot do better than to quote from an 
 article recently contributed by E. E. 
 Hasty to the American Bee-Keeper. He 
 says: "Nearly every one seems to think 
 that so long as honey does not boil, of 
 course it cannot burn. That is an awful 
 mistake. 
 
 I/et us consider the state of things when 
 a large can is set on a stove. What is 
 
 the temperature of the iron under the 
 can ? Perhaps 250° or 300° The under 
 side of the tin speedily rises to nearly the 
 same, and the upper side to over 212°. 
 In contact with this high temperature 
 the honey remains as long as it can with- 
 out boiling. It then springs off, and 
 gives place to another film of the same, 
 which in turn is heated to about 210° and 
 sent oif. If the whole contents of the 
 can were fluid and warm, regular currents 
 might set in which would modify things 
 and prevent over-heating. But the bulk 
 of the honey is solid and cold and can- 
 not flow back and forth. It is plain that 
 a considerable part of the honey in a can 
 (if not all of it) maybe subjected piece- 
 meal to the temperature of 210°; while 
 the mass is not at any time over blood 
 warm. It is very unsafe to heat honey to 
 2[o°- There seems to be a great differ- 
 ence in the amount of heat different 
 samples of honey will stand. Some hon- 
 ey can be boiled vigorously with but a 
 moderate degree of damage to its quality, 
 while other samples are ruined without 
 coming to a boil. I am inclined to think 
 that every can of honey ought to go out 
 to its destiny with a plainly printed 
 warning stuck upon it, and a verj' em- 
 phatically worded one, too, ending up 
 with, 'Sample this honey before you heat 
 it, or I will not be responsible for its 
 quality. Bii,i,Y Fairplay.' " 
 
 "Feeding Back." 
 
 -v Y "feeding back" is meant the 
 
 J feeding back of extracted hon- 
 
 ) ey to secure the completion of 
 
 unfinished sections, or to have 
 
 combs built new from the beginning. 
 When engaged in the production of comb 
 honey I fed back for this purpose at least 
 13,000 pounds of extracted honey; but 
 
 my success was so varied that I never felt 
 like encouraging the practice. One year, 
 with certain colonies, I would meet with 
 such splendid success as to be greatly en- 
 couraged, while the results of the next 
 year, or the performances of certain col- 
 onies, would, perhaps, lead me to decide 
 that I was done with feeding back. But, 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 57 
 
 when the next season rolled around, and 
 the close of the linden honey harvest 
 found me with perhaps 2,000 unfinished 
 sections on hand, and I sat down and 
 figured up how much they would be 
 worth when completed, I felt, as Dr. 
 Miller once expressed it at a Chicago 
 convention, that it might pay to feed to 
 secure the completion of unfinished sec- 
 tions, even though the feeding of four 
 or five pounds of honey increased the 
 weight of the sections only one pound. 
 
 Did I not consider the use of drawn 
 combs of considerable value in getting 
 the bees started in the supers in the 
 spring, I should unhesitatingly pro- 
 nounce in favor of feeding back to secure 
 the completion of unfinished sections. 
 That is, that would be my decision so far 
 as the management of my own apiary is 
 concerned; but it does not follow that 
 this would be the proper one at which all 
 bee-keepers should arrive; although it 
 would seem that there is one class that 
 would be glad to so decide, and that is 
 the one that finds the use of drawn combs 
 in sections so very objectionable. 
 
 So much by way of introduction; and 
 now, for the benefit of those who, for any 
 reason, may wish to practice feeding back, 
 I will tell what I have learned in the feed- 
 ing back of those 13,000 pounds of honey. 
 Perhaps the best way will be to tell ex- 
 actly how I would conduct the operation; 
 but first allow me to say that the feeding 
 of honey, for the purpose of having it 
 stored in the sections; is a distinct branch 
 of bee-keeping — as much so as the rais- 
 ing of queens for market — and there are 
 many things that can be learned only by 
 experience. 
 
 In this locality the basswood harvest 
 closes about July 20, and for the next 
 month, or six weeks, until the flow from 
 .buckwheat begins, no honey is gathered, 
 and, usually, the weather is hot — ^just the 
 conditions needed for successful feeding 
 back. As soon as I see that the basswood 
 harvest is drawing to a close, I remove 
 all the sections from the hives, look 
 them over, take out the finished ones, 
 and sort the remainder into three grades, 
 
 viz., almost finished, half done, and just 
 commenced. The cases containing the 
 first two grades are then placed upon the 
 hives, one case upon a hive, and allowed 
 to remain until the bees have taken pos- 
 session of them. Then comes the task 
 of selecting the colonies to do the work; 
 and, by the way, this is the most impor- 
 tant point, as success is largely depend- 
 ent upon a proper selection. First, the 
 colonies must be strong; next, they must 
 possess young queens, preferably those of 
 the current year, although this is not 
 imperative; and last, but not least, simon 
 pure blacks are given the first choice. 
 Hybrids are the next best, while, as a rule, 
 Italians do very poor work in this line. 
 Keeping in view these points, I select 
 one-half as many colonies as I have cases 
 of unfinished sections upon the hives, 
 and to these colonies I transfer the cases 
 — sections, bees and all — putting two cases 
 upon each hive. I have never experi- 
 enced the least trouble, in any respect, 
 from thus mixing up the bees, while 
 populous colonies are secured thereby. 
 
 If the brood nests are not already con- 
 tracted, I contract them. The greater 
 the contraction, the more satisfactory 
 will be the results, so far as work in the 
 sections is concerned, but, if carried too 
 far, it will materially weaken the colo- 
 nies by curtailing the production of brood. 
 I have sometimes contracted the brood 
 nest to only three Lanafstroth combs, 
 and these three combs, when I was 
 through feeding, were three solid sheets 
 of brood; but, all things considered, I 
 prefer to contract the brood nest to about 
 the capacity of five Langstroth combs. 
 There is also another point that must not 
 be neglected, and that is the brood combs 
 must not be old and black, otherwise the 
 combs in the sections will become travel- 
 stained unless removed very promptly 
 upon their completion. The newer the 
 combs in the brood nest the better. 
 
 When honey is Drought in from the 
 fields it is carried up into the sections; 
 that is, the supply, as regards the sec- 
 tions, comes from below; when a feeder is 
 placed above the sections, then the sup- 
 
58 
 
 At)VAisrcBb BEt;-cuLTtjRfi. 
 
 ply comes from above. In both in- 
 stances, the sections in which the work 
 is the least advanced should be placed 
 nearest the source of supply. Thus it 
 will be seen that, in feeding back, the 
 sections that are nearly finished are placed 
 next to the brood nest, and above these 
 the grade that is about one-half comple- 
 ted. 
 
 feeding produces little or no excitement; 
 still, at dark is the best time to feed, as 
 the annoyance of having robber bees fol- 
 low from hive to hive and dive into the 
 feeder reservoir when it is opened, is thus 
 avoided. The feed is given as fast as the 
 bees will take it. 
 
 Close watch is kept of the sections in 
 the lower cases, and whenever a case is 
 
 NEW STYLE, HEDDON FEEDER. 
 
 The feeder used is the Heddon, which 
 is exactly the size of the top of the hive, 
 and placed above the sections. His new 
 feeder is unexcelled for this purpose, as 
 the bees take down the feed from both 
 sides. This might not seem important, 
 but it is, and for this reason, when the 
 feed is carried down upon one side only, 
 the sections upon this side are completed 
 first. When the feed is carried down 
 from both sides, the sections are finished 
 up very evenly all over the case. In this 
 feeder the reservoir is in the center, and 
 just over it a part of the cover slides back 
 in grooves. There is no contact with the 
 bees, no smoke is needed, no propolis is 
 disturbed, and the cover fits so snugly 
 that no odor of honey escapes to attract 
 robbers. 
 
 The bees seem to be able to handle the 
 honey to better advantage when it is thin- 
 ned somewhat; say, one quart of water to 
 ten pounds of honey. I heat ten quarts 
 of water over an oil stove until it boils, 
 then mix with loo pounds of honey, stir 
 it up well, and it is ready for use. The 
 first feeding should be done at dark, as it 
 puts the bees in an excited state, and 
 trouble from attempts at robbing might 
 result. After the bees have become ac- 
 customed to finding honey in the feeder, 
 
 found in which all or nearly all of the 
 sections are completed, off it comes; the 
 case above it is placed next the hive, and 
 above this case is placed a case of sec- 
 tions brought from the honey house, one 
 containing sections of the third grade, 
 that is, those in which the bees have 
 made the least progress. I continue to 
 bring in the cases of finished sections as 
 they are completed, replacing them with 
 the unfinished ones from the honey 
 house. When the stock of the latter is 
 exhausted, I am ready to begin to reduce 
 the number of colonies upon which I am 
 feeding back, and this is done as fast as 
 the sections are completed. 
 
 During all this time, since the feeding 
 was commenced, I have been watching 
 each colony, and jotting down, upon the 
 cover of the feeder, its characteristics; 
 and in reducing the number of colonies, 
 those are rejected that have done the 
 least satisfactory work. I continue to 
 keep two cases upon each hive, and, as 
 the colonies work with greatly varying 
 rapidity, there is no difficulty, by chang- 
 ing about the cases, to keep next to the 
 brood nest those sections that are the 
 nearest completion. In gathering the 
 sections together upon fewer hives, I al- 
 ways take bees and all, thus I am con- 
 
ACVANCBD BEE-CUlvTuR^. 
 
 59 
 
 tinually strengthening the colonies upon 
 which I am feeding back. 
 
 It is folly to expect the bees to finish up 
 all of the sections upon a hive. Even 
 though the feeding be continued, the 
 sections will not all be completed in a 
 satisfactory manner. So long as the 
 feeding is continued the bees seem to 
 reason something like this: "We must 
 make the cells as deep as possible, and 
 delay the capping to the last moment, in 
 order to make room for all of the honey 
 that we can; and, if there are not cells 
 enough, we must build more, even if it 
 be in the little cramped up places between 
 the tiers of sections." After the combs 
 are drawn out to full length, filled with 
 honey, and nearly sealed, I have secured 
 better results by giving the bees no feed 
 for three or four days; then giving them 
 alight feed, and omitting the feeding for 
 several days. The bees then behave as 
 though they considered the harvest was 
 over and ended. They seal up most of the 
 cells, and from those that they do not 
 seal they remove the honey. But there 
 is a much better way of managing the 
 business. When the sections are all 
 nearly finished, I put them upon as few 
 hives as possible, placing two cases upon 
 a hive, and then upon each hive, above 
 the two cases of nearly completed sec- 
 tions, I place a case of sections filled with 
 foundation. The bees proceed at once to 
 draw out the foundation and fill it with 
 honey, and this additional storing room 
 appears to bring about a feeling that 
 there is no further necessity for holding 
 open the cells below, and they are sealed 
 forthwith. 
 
 When the two lower cases are comple- 
 ted, the upper case (that was furnished 
 with foandation) will, perhaps, be found 
 to contain sections one-half comple- 
 ted, and these upper cases may be 
 gathered together, bees and all, and 
 placed, two upon each hive, over those 
 colonies that have shown the great- 
 est apitudefor this kind of work, and the 
 feeding continued until the sections are 
 almost completed, when it will again be 
 
 necessary to place a case of sections con- 
 taining foundation upon each hive. I 
 have continued this until, at last, all of 
 the sections were on one hive, and had 
 all the sections completed except those 
 in the case last added at the top. 
 
 After bees have been fed awhile, they 
 secrete large quantities of wax. The lit- 
 tle flakes of it can be seen between the 
 scales of the abdomen, and, unless al- 
 lowed to build comb, the bees will plas- 
 ter with wax the woodwork of the sec- 
 tions, the inside of the feeders, cases, etc. 
 The moral is, allow them to build comb. 
 Have a row or two of sections in the 
 upper case filled with starters, only; thus 
 there is secured, in the shape of comb, 
 what would otherwise be wasted. 
 
 Although we cannot control the tem- 
 perature, it may be well to know that the 
 hotter the weather the more rapid and 
 satisfactory will be the work of the bees 
 when we are feeding back. 
 
 If there is any time when separators are 
 needed, it is in feeding back. If the 
 combs, both finished and unfinished, 
 could be left undisturbed upon the hives, 
 and the bees fed until all the combs were 
 finished, feeding back would be no reason 
 why separators should be employed, but 
 when the unfinished combs are put back 
 in the cases, a great deal of judgment aod 
 patience aie needed, unless separators 
 are to be used. Bees usually have about 
 a ^ space between finished combs, and 
 in putting back the unfinished combs, 
 this fact should be kept in mind. When 
 the space is less than this, no harm is 
 done unless it is so small that a bee can't 
 pass through, when the bees will connect 
 the two surfaces by little bridges of wax, 
 and when the sections are taken apart, 
 these little connecting bridges will pull 
 pieces out from one comb or the other. 
 When the space is much greater than ^, 
 and the comb upon each side is sealed, 
 the bees, especially if crowded, will con- 
 struct comb upon the sealed surface of 
 the other comb, which gives it a very 
 botched appearance. If the comb at one 
 side of the space is sealed, and the other 
 
6o 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURB. 
 
 not, the sealed comb will be left undis- 
 turbed and the unsealed cells on the op- 
 posite side lengthened out until the space 
 between the two combs is reduced to 
 about 5^. If, in this instance, the sealed 
 comb is smooth and even, and in the 
 right place as regards the section as a 
 whole, all will be well; but, if it be con- 
 cave or convex, the unfinished comb fac- 
 ing it will be drawn out in conformity 
 with the surface of the finished comb. If 
 two unfinished surfaces, in the same stage 
 of completion, are brought facing each 
 other near the center of the super, they 
 will be drawn out and sealed straight and 
 true and alike; if they are near the out- 
 side, the chances are that the comb near- 
 est the center of the super will grow 
 faster than the one farther out, and a 
 bulge will be the result. Combs near the 
 center of the super are drawn out quicker 
 and finished sooner than those at the out- 
 side and corners; hence I place at theout- 
 .side those sections that are the nearest 
 completion; especially do I take pains to 
 have sealed surfaces come next to the 
 sides of the super, while combs the farth- 
 est from completion are placed in the 
 center. By this management all of the 
 sections are finished at about the same 
 time. Unless some of the combs are be- 
 ginning to show signs of travel-stain, it is 
 better to leave on the super until all, or 
 nearly all, are completed, for, as the 
 combs near completion, this matter of 
 adjustment becomes more difficult. 
 
 When foundation is used, and comb 
 honey produced, "rightfrom the stump," 
 by feeding extracted honey, we have 
 none of this bulging, patching difficulty 
 to contend with, as the combs all grow 
 alike ; and some of the finest, straightest, 
 plumpest and most handsome comb hon- 
 ey can thus be produced that the eye ever 
 beheld; but I have never found it profit- 
 able, except by placing a few cases on 
 top, near the close of finishing up a lot of 
 unfinished sections, to give the bees 
 room, and thus induce them to seal up 
 
 nearly finished combs, as has been already 
 explained. 
 
 I know of only two objections to the 
 feeding back of honey. One is that "fed 
 honey" has a slightly different taste from 
 that stored directly in the combs from 
 the flowers. There seems to be a sort of 
 "off" taste, or a lack of flavor. This lack 
 of fine flavor is not very pronounced, but 
 it can be noticed by one who is experi- 
 enced in the matter. The other objec- 
 tion is that "fed honey" will candy much 
 sooner than other honey. When the sec- 
 tions are nearly completed, and feeding 
 is done simply to have them completed 
 and sealed over, the proportion of "fed 
 honey" is so small that the candying is 
 not a very serious objection. There is a 
 great difference in honey as regards its 
 tendency to candying, and it has been 
 suggested that thinning the honey with 
 water increases its candying propensity. 
 I have fed but very little thick honey. 
 The bees worked it so slowly that I be- 
 came discouraged and went back to thin- 
 ning it. I know that they seal it over 
 sooner when it is fed full thickness, and it 
 may hs possible that this is the better 
 way of feeding it. The best advice that « 
 I can give upon this matter of "fed hon- 
 ey" candying, is that it be sold early and 
 in a market where it will surely reach 
 the consumer before it candies. 
 
 Taking one year with another, I have 
 secured about two pounds of comb honey 
 from the feeding of three pounds of ex- 
 tracted. With the right kind of weather 
 and colonies, I have done much better — 
 secured four pounds for five. 
 
 The advantages of feeding back can be 
 stated in a very few words. Comb honey 
 is more salable, at a higher price, than 
 extracted, and if the latter can be chang- 
 ed into the former, at no great expense, 
 there are quicker sales and greater profits.- 
 The greatest advantage, however, is in 
 securing the completion of nearly finished 
 sections. 
 
From the Hive to the Honey Market. 
 
 EFORE taking up the main 
 
 topic indicated by the heading, 
 
 j I wish to say a few words about 
 "tiering up." 
 
 When the first case of sections is partly 
 finished, it is raised and another case 
 placed between that and the hive. At 
 what stage of completion the sections 
 should be when a second case is added, 
 depends upon how crowded the bees are, 
 and the rate at which the honey is com- 
 ing in. I usually add a case when the 
 sections in the one next the hive are from 
 one-half to two-thirds completed. I have 
 not found it profitable to tier up sections 
 more than three cases high. As a rule, 
 the upper case of sections is ready for re- 
 moval before it is necessary to add a 
 fourth; if it is not, and honey is coming 
 in rapidly, I would transfer the upper 
 case, bees and all, to some colony having 
 less than three cases, rather than tier up 
 four cases high. With any system in 
 which the sections are finished in close 
 proximity to the brood nest, their remov- 
 al is necessary soon after completion to 
 prevent soiling by the bees passing over 
 them directly from the brood nest; but 
 with the tiering up system the finished 
 combs are so far from the brood nest that 
 they remain unsullied until a whole case 
 of finished sections can be removed at 
 once. During a regular "honey shower, ' ' 
 such as we have sometimes here in Mich- 
 igan, I have seen a colony draw out the 
 foundation in twenty-eight sections and 
 fill them full of honey (and here is where 
 
 I believe foundation is very valuable) in 
 less than three days, and scarcely a cell 
 would be sealed. To give the bees another 
 case of sections next the hive is the work 
 of a moment. What other system will 
 enable us to handle one of these "honey 
 showers" with so little labor? At such 
 times it may be advisable to remove the 
 upper case, after the cases have been 
 tiered up three high, even if there are one 
 or two unfinished sections in each cor- 
 ner; and when crating, have an empt}' 
 case at hand in which to put the unfinish- 
 ed sections, and when it is full place it on 
 a hive. 
 
 To remove a case of sections, I have 
 the smoker in good trim, take off the 
 cover and drive a perfect deluge of smoke 
 down among the bees. This starts them 
 out of the case at a lively rate, and before 
 they have time to get back I have the case 
 off the hive. The case is then tremulous- 
 ly shaken in front of the hive until most 
 of the bees are dislodged, when it is tak- 
 en to the honey house and set on end. 
 In a short time the few straggling bees 
 leave the case and escape by way .of the 
 windows. If the shaking process is found 
 too laborious, and robbers are not trouble- 
 some (and they will not be until the 
 close of the season) the case may be 
 leaned against the side of the hive, near 
 the entrance, when the bees will desert 
 the case for the hive. When robbers are 
 troublesome, the stragglers may be driv- 
 en out with smoke and brushed off in 
 front of the hive. 
 
62 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 And right here I wish to say another 
 word in favor of the much abused blacks. 
 We all know of their propensity to run 
 off the combs when smoked or handled, 
 also with what ease they are shaken from 
 the combs; well, these characteristics are 
 of great value as soon as we begin to 
 manipulate hives instead of frames. A 
 case of sections, or one section of the 
 Heddon hive, can be cleared of black 
 bees with one-half the time and labor re- 
 quired with Italians. One or two puffs 
 of smoke, and down go the blacks, leav- 
 ing a case of sections almost free from 
 bees. But, as advanced bee-culture, with 
 its reversible hives, comb foundation and 
 "bait" sections of partly drawn combs, 
 has well nigh overcome the objection to 
 Italian bees on the score of their disin- 
 clination to store honey away from the 
 brood nest, so it promises, with the bee 
 escape, to remove any objections there 
 may be to them on account of their cling- 
 ing so persistently to the combs. 
 
 Mr. John S. Reese was the orginal in- 
 ventor of the bee escape. It works upon 
 the principle of the old fashioned cone 
 fly trap. To use the Reese escape, the 
 case, from which it is desired to have the 
 bees removed, is taken off and set to one 
 side. An empty case is placed on the 
 hive. Over the empty case is placed a 
 thin board, and in a hole in this board is 
 fitted a cone of wire cloth. The base of 
 the cone is uppermost and level with the 
 upper surface of the board. The apex of 
 the cone is down and nearly in contact 
 with the hive or case below. The base of 
 the cone is perhaps three inches across 
 and there is a ^ hole at the apex. The 
 bees seem to find that they are cut off 
 from the hive — made prisoners — and are 
 anxious to return. They easily find the 
 cone and pass down through the hole in 
 its apex, but the opening is not very 
 readily found if they desire to return. 
 The result is that, in a few honrs, the 
 case is practically free from bees. Mr. 
 C. H. Dibbern flattened out the cone and 
 laid it upon its side, thus making a hori- 
 zontal escape that can be put into a % 
 
 space instead of needing an empty case to 
 give it room. The principle remains the 
 same as in the Reese; that is, there is a 
 big, wide, easily accessible entrance, and 
 a small exit which is not easily found 
 from the side opposite to the supers. 
 Escapes have been made having little 
 swinging doors of tin or brass that can 
 be swung out, but not in. The trouble 
 with these is that the bees soon cover 
 them with propolis so that they will not 
 swing. Mr. E. C. Porter has invented a 
 spring escape. There is a light spring, 
 under which the bees can pass out, their 
 backs raising the spring slightly. If a 
 bee attempts to return, the end of the 
 spring is encountered, which is too low 
 to allow a bee to pass. 
 
 Having raised our honey, and gotten it 
 off the hives, the next step is its prepara- 
 tion for the market. What this prepara- 
 tion shall be, depends upon the market — 
 whether it is a home or distant market, a 
 wholesale or a retail one. When honey 
 is to be retailed at home, it might be said 
 that it required almost no preparation. 
 When one or two sections of honey are 
 sold to a neighbor, we have simply to 
 wrap them up a piece of paper, or, per- 
 haps, put them into paper cartons. In 
 retailing extracted honey at home, when 
 customers bring in pails, pitchers and 
 pans to be filled, we have only to keep 
 the honey in a large tin can, with a hon- 
 ey gate near the bottom, and have some 
 scales to weigh the honey. 
 
 If honey is not thoroughly ripened, 
 heavy and thick, it should stand a few 
 days in large vessels, that the thin honey 
 may rise to the top, when the thick hon- 
 ey may be drawn off at the bottom into 
 the package in which it is to be shipped. 
 Where honey is raised in very large quan- 
 tities, and shipped in bulk to jobbers, or 
 to be used, perhaps, for manufacturing 
 purposes, I doubt if there is a more de- 
 sirable package than a barrel. When 
 pains have been taken to raise an extra 
 fine article, for table use, and it is to be 
 shipped direct to consumers, or to retail 
 dealers, I believe that the 6o-lb., jacketed 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 63 
 
 tin is the package. It never leaks nor 
 taints the honey; it protects the honey 
 perfectly from the air; is easily opened, 
 and, if the honey is candied, it can be 
 easily liquefied in the can. 
 
 Almost everybody prefers their honey 
 in a liquid state. They prefer to buy it in 
 that condition, and thus be saved the 
 trouble of melting it. Honey is more 
 attractive in appearance when in its liquid 
 state. When candied it has no more 
 beauty than so much lard. In order that 
 the beauty of extracted honey may be 
 seen, it must be put up in glass, then its 
 beautiful amber tints sparkle in the light, 
 and the result is that the prospective pur- 
 chaser ends by saying, "Well, I guess I'll 
 take it. ' ' To compete with comb honey 
 as a fancy article of gropery merchan- 
 dise, extracted honey must be in a liquid 
 state, and put up in glass with tin foil 
 caps and small tasty labels. Of course 
 all this costs money, but any expense in- 
 curred in beautifying a commodity is 
 most cheerfully repaid by the consumer. 
 Some purchasers may not be willing to 
 admit even to themselves, of their sus- 
 ceptibility to the attractions of beauty, 
 but what do we care ? Upon all packages 
 of extracted honey there should be ex- 
 planatory labels, stating that, in cool 
 weather, most honey will granulate or 
 candy, but may be liquefied by placing 
 the vessel in warm water. There should 
 also be a caution in regard to the great 
 liability of scorching honey when melt- 
 ing it. 
 
 If candied honey is to be put upon a re- 
 tail market, tin pails are the proper re- 
 ceptacle to use. They should vary in 
 capacity from one to ten pounds. 
 
 As there will be no danger of breakage, 
 tin pails can be shipped in a box, but bot- 
 tles of honey should be shipped packed 
 in sawdust. I have shipped thousands 
 of bottles so packed, and never had one 
 broken. 
 
 By the wav, some recent experiments 
 indicate that extracted honey may yet be 
 retailed in paper sacks. The sacks are 
 heavy Manila paper, paraffined, and the 
 
 honey put in while in the liquid state, and 
 then allowed to granulate. The sacks 
 can be set into small boxes, a la egg crate 
 fashion, the boxes holding them square 
 until the honey candies, when the sacks 
 of honey can be packed for shipment like 
 so many bricks. The purchaser can peel 
 off the paper and melt up the honey if he 
 prefers it in that state.. The cost is only 
 about one tenth that of tin. 
 
 If I have plenty of surplus cases (su- 
 pers) when taking off comb honey, I 
 leave the honey in them, simply stacking 
 the cases up criss-cross in the honey 
 house, where they remain until I have 
 leisure to scrape the propolis from the 
 sections. The single-tier, 12-lb., ship- 
 ping case, with glass in the ends, seems 
 to have driven nearly every other case 
 
 12-LB. SHIPPING CASE. 
 
 from the market. It is light and easily 
 handled, and if a comb leaks the honey 
 does not drip upon a lower tier of sec- 
 tions, as there is no lower tier. Much 
 has been said about these cases being so 
 small that freight handlers do not 
 "dump" them and thus break the honey. 
 Freight men do not handle them singly, 
 but usually take about four at once, and 
 load them on a truck if the distance is 
 great. I doubt if it is "dumping" by 
 freight handlers that does most of the 
 damage. It comes about by the railroad 
 men putting the cases in the car the 
 wrong way, or, perhaps, piling them up 
 too high, which allows the bumping to- 
 gether of the cars to break out combs, or 
 tumble down the pile of cases. When 
 the shipment is so large that a whole car, 
 or half a car, is needed, and the cases can 
 be snugly stacked up with the combs par- 
 allel with the track, straw underneath and 
 at the sides, and boards across the end of 
 the pile, nailed fast to the sides of the 
 car, honey can cross the continent un- 
 
64 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 injured. It is the small lot that must be 
 "transferred,'- en route, that means topsy 
 turvy treatment. 
 
 When our well-filled sections of white 
 honey have been put into their cases of 
 clean, white basswood, and are stacked 
 up in the honey house awaiting shipment, 
 what a beautiful sight ! So dainty, so 
 neat, so white. I'have sometimes stop- 
 ped work long enough to step back and 
 gaze in silent admiration. These self- 
 same, beautiful cases have again met my 
 gaze after they had made the journey to 
 Detroit, to Cleveland, or to Chicago. 
 But my gaze was no longer one of ad- 
 miration. It was one of wonder, of cha- 
 grin, of sorrow, of indignation. Had it 
 not been for the stencil marks that I had 
 put on with so much care, I should have 
 felt inclined to disown the cases. Dirty? 
 Well, yes. Coal dust and nastiness from 
 the floors of cars and warehouses had be- 
 smirched the beautiful, white wood until 
 — well, do you wonder that I have some- 
 times wrapped paper around the cases be- 
 fore shipping them ? 
 
 I am happy to say, however, that there 
 is a remedy for all these troubles; it is 
 simply putting several of the cases into 
 one crate, not a box, as that would hide 
 the honey, but a crate, with slats on the 
 sides so arranged that the openings on 
 the sides will come exactly over the glass 
 in the ends of the cases. The bottom, 
 ends and top of the case are made of 
 boards. A crate may be made to hold 
 nine, twelve or sixteen cases. A little 
 straw may be put in the bottom. The 
 ends of a slat on each side, near the top 
 of the case, are allowed to project and 
 thus form handles. The position of the 
 
 handles shows which side up the crate 
 should be kept. In fact, these handles 
 are so inviting that there is no disposi- 
 tion to put the crate in a wrong position. 
 The handles are so short that the crate 
 cannot be "dumped" without dumping 
 it on the toes of the carriers. Cases of 
 honey crated in this manner never tum- 
 ble over, and they reach their destination 
 free from even the finger marks of a 
 dirty hand. Last year I had four crates 
 
 CRATE OF CASKS READY FOR SHIPMENT. 
 
 filled with cases of honey shipped to the 
 Detroit Exposition, from there to the 
 Lansing Fair, from there home, and then 
 to Columbus, Ohio, and not a comb was 
 broken, while the cases were as clean as 
 when they left home. I greatly favor 
 the plan of placing a large label upon the 
 top of the crate having a large fl®" 
 pointing lengthwise of the crate, and 
 accompanied by the following in bold 
 type: "Load with the hand pointing to- 
 ward the end of the car or the 
 side of the wagon." 
 
Marketing of Honey. 
 
 C/^ fx^O RAISE a good crop of honey 
 cheaply, and to sell it to the 
 best advantage, are two quite 
 distinct processes, requiring 
 greatly varying qualifications. Seldom 
 do we find all these qualifications in the 
 highest degree combined in one person. 
 I believe the majority of bee-keepers are 
 better bee-keepers than they are business 
 men; or, perhaps, salesmen is more nearly 
 the proper word to use. Many of them 
 can't get far enough away from a bee 
 hive to sell the honey that has been stored 
 in it — or think they can't. Every energy 
 is bent to the securing of a great crop; 
 having secured it, many a bee-keeper is 
 actually puzzled as to how to put it up- 
 on the market in the best shape, or how, 
 or where, to sell. Mr. McKnight, of 
 Canada, says, "The product of no other 
 industry is put upon the market in such 
 a cumbrous, uncouth and slovenly form." 
 This may seem a little over-drawn, but it 
 is worth thinking of. The improvements 
 in the last few years, however, have been 
 very great, and I think the remark of Mr. 
 McKnight could not be applied to the 
 honey put up at present by many of our 
 bee-keepers. 
 
 Let's suppose that the honey is all ready 
 for the market — put up in the most ap- 
 proved style, considering the market to 
 which it is to go — how shall it be sold and 
 who shall sell it ? Some men are born 
 salesmen. To these there is no question 
 as to Z£/Ao shall sell their honey; that is, 
 if they are so situated that they can visit. 
 
 personally, the market in which they wish 
 to sell. If a man is a poor salecsman , the 
 best thing he can do, unless he can learn 
 to sell honey, is to employ some expert to 
 sell his honey for him. This means that 
 some commission man will handle it, or 
 else that it will be sold so cheaply that 
 the buyer can afford to spend his time in 
 finding customers. 
 
 Dr. A. B. Mason, of Ohio, once told, at 
 a Mich. State Bee-Keepers' Convention, 
 how two men and a woman sold thousands 
 of pounds of honey in large cities. One 
 man, provided with a map of the city, 
 systematically canvassed, with samples 
 of honey, taking orders and marking up- 
 on the map the location of each sale. 
 The other man, guided by the marked 
 map, delivered the honey. When not de- 
 livering honey, he assisted the women 
 in liquefying and putting up honey for 
 delivery. . Here was a work entirely dis- 
 tinct from honey production. Here was 
 specialty. Not only the specialty of sel- 
 ling honey, but each had a special part 
 to perform, learning it to perfection. 
 
 Much, both wi e and unwise, has been 
 said about developing home markets. 
 Much depends upon the kind of home 
 market there is to develop, and the kind 
 of honey there is to be sold; yes, and up- 
 on the man. When the market is sup- 
 plied with "farmer honey" — that raised 
 with a lick and a brush — that is sealing 
 at retail for two-thirds what a first class 
 article will net when sold by a commis- 
 sion man in a distant city, how much en- 
 
65 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 couragement is there to "develop the 
 home market?" Very Httle of my own 
 comb honey has been sold in the home 
 market. Many a time have I taken a case 
 of nice comb honey to some grocer and 
 "showed it up," with the hopes of mak- 
 ing asale: "Yes, that's very nice," would 
 be the comment, "How much do you ask 
 for it?" "Seventeen cents." "Whew! 
 Wh}' we are retailing honey at a shilling. 
 We buy it for ten cents and pay in trade 
 at that." I ask to see the honey. Then 
 some rough pine sections, daubed with 
 propolis and stuck fast in the receptacle 
 in which they were filled, are brought 
 forward. I call attention to the neater 
 and more tasty manner in which my hon- 
 ey is put up. "Oh, yes, your honey is 
 put up very nicely, but it isn't any sweet- 
 er than this." And the man was correct, 
 too; the honey itself fias, probably as good 
 as mine, but it lacked the dainty sur- 
 roundings. If I ventured to say that 
 such honey as mine was selling in Chi- 
 cago for eighteen cents, he would look 
 as though he doubted my word. If hon- 
 ey were selling at such figures in Chicago, 
 it would seem unreasonable that any one 
 would be fooling around home with it. 
 
 The most of my honey that has been 
 sold in the home market has been of a 
 low grade — either dark, or the combs un- 
 finished. These lower grades of honey 
 bring almost as much in many home 
 markets as the choicest honey put 
 up in "gilt edge" style; while the 
 commission market of a large city is a 
 poor one for "off" grades of honey. To 
 many grocers in country towns, honey is 
 honey, much the same as butter is butler. 
 To me, it seems that there is a class of 
 consumers in large cities that concerns 
 itself very little about the price of an 
 article, provided the fancy is struck. 
 
 The point is just here: the best honey 
 producing fields are far distant from the 
 best markets; the best place to produce 
 honey is not the best in which to sell it. 
 Such being the case, I have never seen 
 any great encouragement in trying to de- 
 velop a home market, particularly for the 
 finer grades pf comb Jjoney. When a 
 
 man can send off his honey all in one 
 shipment, and done with it, and get an 
 advanced price, with the money all in a 
 "lump," again I ask what encouragement 
 is there for him to develop his home 
 market ? 
 
 I am not writing in this way for the 
 purpose of discouraging the marketing of 
 honey near home. I am simply stating 
 facts as I have found them, and as I be- 
 lieve many of my readers have found 
 them. It must be admitted, however, 
 that no set rules can be given upon the 
 choice of a market. All must be greatly 
 governed by circumstunces. No doubt 
 there are many excellent home markets^ 
 and many more that might be "develop- 
 ed" until they were good, if a man with 
 plenty of time and patience should take 
 hold of the matter in the right way. If a 
 man is determined to build up a home 
 market, he will often be compelled to 
 leave his honey with grocers to be paid 
 for when sold. Comb honey must be 
 graded, and crated in crates with a glass 
 to show the honey, and dealers must be 
 visited regularly and kept supplied with 
 honey. In short, the customers must 
 be followed up and looked after faithful- 
 ly, the same as commercial travellers 
 look after their customers. Grocers must 
 be educated until they know that honey 
 must be kept in sight to be sold. If a 
 handsome display can be made in a front 
 window it will be a drawing card. There 
 should also be some convenient arrange- 
 ment for giving each interested visitor a 
 "taste" of honey, accompanying it by a 
 "honey almanac," or some other attrac- 
 tive, printed matter setting forth the de- 
 sirability of honey as a food. 
 
 After all, an out and out sale of the en- 
 tire crop, for cash, at the end of the sea- 
 son, is the most satisfactory method of 
 marketing; but, only once, in my four- 
 teen years of bee keeping, have I been 
 thus fortunate. Although honey is a 
 luxury, it is not perishable like small 
 fruits, yet there are few wholesale dealers 
 who buy it out and out. The great bulk 
 of honey passes through the hands of 
 commission merchants. Are there any 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 67 
 
 objections to this ? Yes. One objection 
 is the opportunity for dissatisfaction. 
 Some bee-keepers think their honey first- 
 class, when it isn't. They see the quo- 
 tations of some commission man, and 
 send their honey to hitn, expecting to get 
 the highest price. If they don't get it, 
 they are disappointed and say unpleasant 
 things. The bee-keeper never knows 
 how much his honey is going to bring 
 him. The price may decline in the mar- 
 ket to which he has sent his honey. 
 When he sent it, the market may have 
 been the best. Now some other market 
 may be the best, but it may not pay him 
 to have the honey re-shipped; besides, 
 bv the time the honey is being sold in 
 the new market, the price may have de- 
 clined there. In other words, by the com- 
 mission way of doing business, the bee- 
 keeper cannot select his market at the 
 time of sale. He can limit his commis- 
 sion man, that is, tell him not to sell un- 
 less he gets a certain price. But this is 
 not always wise; for, as a rule, the com- 
 mission man knows, better than the far 
 away owner, at what price honey can be 
 sold. When there is an out and out sale, 
 at a certain price, there can be no doubt 
 as to whether hone.st returns are made. 
 When sold on commission, there is only 
 the seller's word that the honey sold for 
 so much. Of course it is possible to prove 
 the truth or falsity of returns, but the 
 trouble would be too great, unless in ex- 
 treme cases. I don't wish to insinuate 
 that commission men are more dishonest 
 than the rest of humanity, but the oppor- 
 tunities for fraud are greater than in some 
 lines of business. I believe that some 
 commission men, perhaps the majority of 
 them, are honest; the difficulties arise 
 
 from the circumstances that furnish con- 
 ditions for the growth of a doubt. It is 
 for such reasons as these that it would be 
 desirable if the commission business 
 could be avoided; but, whether desirable 
 or not, the honev . trade has fallen into 
 the hands of commission men, and the 
 prospects are that it will remain there for 
 some time to come, and perhaps the best 
 that most of us can do is to send our hon- 
 ey to those in whom we have the most 
 confidence that they will get good prices 
 and make honest returns. 
 
 Quite a little was said at one time 
 about co-operation in some form, as an 
 aid to marketing I have little faith in 
 this sort of thing when applied to honey 
 producers. They are too numerous and 
 too scattered. The peach growers of New 
 Jersey improved their market by forming 
 an "Exchange." The fruit is all sent to 
 a central point, to which buyers resort, 
 where it is sold at auction. If peach 
 growing extended all over the United 
 States, this could not be done. 
 
 I have already mentioned the peddling 
 of honey in large cities. Bee-keepers 
 who have facilities, and a taste for such 
 work, may do something in this direction, 
 during the fall and winter, by going from 
 village to village, having a regular 
 route and going over it at regular inter- 
 vals. 
 
 As to the time of selling, it is usually 
 well to have the honey on the market as 
 soon as berries are out of the way, and the 
 cool of fall begins to be felt. Some mar- 
 kets are good even earlier. Don't hold 
 honey until winter is half over, waiting 
 for better prices. The prospects of loss 
 overbalance those for gain. 
 
gratory Bee-Keeping. 
 
 V FATHER lives in an adjoin- 
 ing county where there is an 
 abundance of boneset and 
 goldenrod. One year, a 
 younger brother, who had not left ho'Jie, 
 came to my place early in August and 
 carried home with him tvVenty colonies of 
 my bees. An empty story filled with 
 empty combs was placed over each col- 
 ony, and the top covered with wire cloth. 
 A hay rack was covered with hay to the 
 depth of two feet, the hives set upon the 
 hay, and held together in a "bunch" by 
 passing a rope around them. The jour- 
 ney of twenty-five miles was made with- 
 out mishap. Those twenty colonies 
 furnished 400 pounds of surplus; besides, 
 th»y needed no feeding for winter, while 
 the bees kept at home stored no surplus, 
 and each colony required feeding, on an 
 average, about 15 pounds. I gave one- 
 half of the surplus to my brother as his 
 share of the "spoils." Had buckwheat 
 yielded well, which, in this locality, 
 happens about once in half a dozen years, 
 nothing would have been gained by mov- 
 ing the bees. The inability to foretell 
 the honey flow in any given locality is 
 the greatest obstacle in the way of suc- 
 cessful migratory bee-keeping. In the 
 Review for August, 1889, Mr. R. L. Tay- 
 lor said: "I might have made f 1,000 by 
 moving 100 colonies there (to a certain 
 locality) last year, but I might expend 
 |;200 each year for the next five years, 
 in moving back and forth, and find at the 
 end of that time that I coijld have ob- 
 
 tained more honey if I had not moved 
 them at all. This, I admit, is not likely, 
 as the advantages of that locality for a 
 full crop are so much greater than this, 
 but it is possible ." 
 
 Only forty miles from here, on a direct 
 line of railroad, is a locality where the 
 main honey flow comes in the fall, yet 
 nothing is secured here at that time. All 
 bee-keepers know that the distance of 
 only a few miles often makes all the dif- 
 ference between no crop and a bountiful 
 harvest, and the question is, can't bee- 
 keepers take advantage of this fact ? If 
 they can, why don't they do so more 
 than they do? Either the moving of 
 bees to take advantage of transient, 
 neighboring flows is unprofitable, on the 
 whole, or else this part of bee-keeping 
 has been neglected. Bee-yards, honey 
 houses, etc. , are all gotten up with per- 
 manency of location in view. The bee- 
 keeper gathers about him these conven- 
 iences and appliances, arranges his apiary, 
 and, if the honey comes to him, all right; 
 if it doesn't, he does not think of going 
 to the honey. 
 
 The expense of moving to and from a 
 locality a few miles distant need not be 
 so very great. Prom thirty to forty col- 
 onies can be moved on a large hay rack; 
 or a special rack might be constructed by 
 means of which one team could haul fifty 
 colonies. Small, light, readily movable 
 hives are a great advantage. One of the 
 great advantages of fixed frames, about 
 which there has been so much said of 
 
ADVANCED SEE-CUI.TURE. 
 
 69 
 
 late, is that they need no fastening when 
 an apiary is moved. An apiarist who is 
 seeing to practice moving his bees to se- 
 cure better pastures, must have hives, 
 fixtures and other arrangements suitable 
 for that purpose. It ought not to take 
 more than two or three minutes to pre- 
 pare a hive of bees for moving. 
 
 Some localities are blessed with white 
 clover, basswood and fall flowers; and, 
 by the way, the man who is to make a 
 specialty of bee-keeping, ought to seek 
 such a locality; but many who are already 
 engaged in bee-keeping are permanently 
 located, have friends and relations living 
 near, and prefer not to move away even 
 if the profits would be increased thereby. 
 Then, again, it is difficult to find a first- 
 class locality for clover or basswood that 
 is equally good for fall flowers. And the 
 better the locality the greater the danger 
 of its being overstocked by its verj- at- 
 tractiveness bringing together so many 
 bee-keepers. 
 
 Years ago, movable frames, or combs, 
 were invented. In the last few years 
 many of us have been learning to accom- 
 plish many things by handling hives in- 
 stead of combs, and the expression, 
 "readily movable hive,'" has been coined. 
 Now we are beginning to talk about 
 readily movable apiaries! — those that, 
 with a day's warning, can be picked up 
 and set down twenty miles away where 
 a "honey shower" is passing. 
 
 I scarcel}' feel like advising a bee-keep- 
 er to move his apiary to some other lo- 
 cality with the hopes ois^coTia^ 3. greater 
 yield than it is possible to secure at home, 
 when the yield at home may be a fair 
 one, but when a bee-keeper has only 
 white clover, or basswood, or fall flowers, 
 from which to secure surplus, yet lives 
 only a few miles from one, or both, of the 
 other sources, it does seem to me as 
 though he ought to consider the advisa- 
 bility of moving his bees to these other 
 fields when the harvest is ready for the 
 laborers. To me this seems like a more 
 promising field for experiment than that 
 of planting for honey. Instead of spend- 
 ing time and money for seeds, land and 
 
 cultivation, let us move our bees to where 
 Nature has already scattered the flowers 
 with a lavish hand. 
 
 There is another form of migratory 
 bee-keeping that has long been the 
 dream of apiarists, that of starting with 
 an apiary in the South at the opening of 
 the honey season, and moving northward 
 with the season, keeping pace with the 
 advancing bloom, thus keeping the bees 
 "in clover" during the whole summer. 
 The difficulties to be overcome are those 
 of transportation. There is no single 
 line of railroad running north and south 
 for a sufficiently long distance to make a 
 success of migratory bee-keeping. When 
 shipping bees by freight, on the migra- 
 tory plan, the delays at junction points 
 are sometimes not only vexatious but 
 disastrous. It is for this reason that 
 longing eyes have been cast at the Miss- 
 issippi river and her steamboats and, 
 once, C. O. Perrine tried moving several 
 hundred colonies up the Mississippi on a 
 barge towed by a tug. The plan was to 
 run up the river nights, and "tie up" 
 during the day to allow the bees to work. 
 There were several reasons why the plan 
 was a failure. The start was made too 
 late in the season, and accidents to the 
 machinery of the tug caused delays. In 
 order to overtake the bloom it became 
 necessary to confine the bees and run 
 day and night. The confinement for so 
 long was very disastrous to the bees. 
 Those who aided in the enterprise believe 
 that, rightly managed, moving bees up 
 the Mississippi to keep pace with the 
 bloom, might be made a success. Mr. 
 Byron Walker, who has had much ex- 
 perience in bringing bees from the South, 
 greatly favors the Mississippi plan of 
 practicing migratory bee-keeping. He 
 would not put the bees on a barge and 
 tow the barge with a tug, but would load 
 the bees upon a regular steamer running 
 up the river, setting them off at some de- 
 sirable point, and then shipping them by 
 boat to another point farther up the river 
 as the flow began to wane. In the fall 
 he would take bees back to the South for 
 the winter. 
 
70 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 Of course, bees moved in hot weather 
 must have abundant ventilation; but this 
 alone will not save the brood. To save 
 the brood the bees must have plenty of 
 water. As obstacle after obstacle has 
 been removed in home bee-keeping, so 
 the migratory plan may yet be robbed of 
 its drawback. 
 
 Right here a hypothetical question 
 comes to mind. Supposing that an apiary 
 moving up the Mississippi secures six 
 crops of honey — six times as much as a 
 stationary apiary — would this be more 
 profitable than six stationary apiaries ? 
 In other words, which is the more pro- 
 mising field for enterprise, following up 
 
 the season, or establishing out-apiaries? 
 Upon this point there are many things to 
 be considered, and varying circumstances 
 would lead to different decisions. To es- 
 tablish six apiaries would require consid- 
 erable capital, and the labor of caring for 
 the honey crop would all come at one time, 
 while there would be only one "chance" 
 of securing a crop. With the migratory 
 plan, only one apiary would be needed, 
 and the work of caring for the surplus 
 would not come all at the same time. 
 With the stationary apiaries there would 
 be no expense for transportation, which 
 is a big item. 
 
 'V>>^f^P-^^^r<^A^<r^ 
 
 Out-Apiaries. 
 
 WHEN a man starts an apiary, 
 it is because he thinks 
 his home-yard overstocked; 
 that he will get enough 
 more honey by the division to pay for the 
 extra labor incurred. Overstocking is one 
 of the most puzzling questions connected 
 with bee culture. We all know that a 
 locality can be overstocked; but localities, 
 seasons and bee-pasture are so variable 
 that it is impossible to lay down any set 
 rules in regard to the number of colonies 
 needed to overstock a locality. It must 
 not be forgotten that the yield per col- 
 ony, yes, and in the aggregate, may be 
 diminished to considerable extent by 
 overstocking ere the establishment of an 
 out-apiary would be a profitable move. I 
 have had no experience with out-apiaries, 
 but I believe that the majority of the in- 
 experienced have erroneous ideas as to 
 the difficulties and expense attending 
 the establishing and management of an 
 oit-apiary. Land must be bought or 
 hired, some sort of a building or shelter 
 
 secured and a conveyance of some kind 
 will be needed for carrying bees, tools, 
 supplies, etc. Then there is the prepara- 
 tion of a cellar for wintering the bees, or 
 they must be carted home in the fall and 
 back in the spring, or else protected up- 
 on their summer stands. But when a 
 man begins to number his colonies by 
 the hundreds, he knows that something 
 must be done. Even if out-apiaries are 
 not so profitable as home-apiaries, they 
 are not usually run at a. loss, while the 
 removal of the surplus bees at the home- 
 yard, allows that to make better returns. 
 When keeping bees upon the out- 
 apiary plan there must of necessity be 
 much moving about of hives from one 
 apiary to another. An out-apiary is sel- 
 dom supposed to be permanently located. 
 If some locality furnishes but little hon- 
 ey it is wise to abandon it and put the 
 bees in some better locality. It certainly 
 would be wise to take considerable pains 
 to ascertain the character of a locality 
 before going to much expense in fitting 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 71 
 
 up an apiary there. As J. A. Green said, 
 in the October Review, for 1890, "To 
 make money with out-apiaries it is not 
 enough to measure off the proper dis- 
 tance from the home-apiary in any di- 
 rection and plant an apiary there, think- 
 ing the bees will do just as well as any- 
 where else. Modern apiculture must do 
 more than that. I cannot escape from 
 the conviction that, to make the most of 
 an apiary, it must be capable of being 
 easily and quickly moved at any time 
 during the working season." 
 
 When it is finally decided to start an 
 apiary, how far away shall it be located ? 
 We have been repeatedly told that, or- 
 dinarily, three miles mark the limits of a 
 bee's foraging grounds, hence, if apiaries 
 were placed six miles apart, there would 
 be no encroachment. But it must be re- 
 membered that the pasture ground of 
 each apiary is somewhat circular in form, 
 and that they might be moved towards 
 each other to considerable extent with- 
 out one encroaching upon the other very 
 much. Dr. Miller has given a very 
 happy illustration. Lay two silver dol- 
 lars side by side. Lift the edge of one 
 and slide it over the other. Notice how 
 far it may be pushed over without cover- 
 ing a very large portion of the other dol- 
 lar. Notwithstanding all this, those who 
 have had experienee in the matter are 
 not inclined to put out-apiaries nearer 
 together than four miles, and prefer to 
 have them five or even six miles apart. 
 When the team is "hitched up" and on 
 the road, a mile or two more travel does 
 not take so very much time, and the in- 
 creased yield may more than make it up. 
 We cannot always secure the exact spot 
 desired for the establishing of an out- 
 apiary, and it would probably be well to 
 
 go a little farther than really necessary 
 rather than to crowd some other apiary. 
 
 Having decided upon a site for an out- 
 apiary, the next consideration is its man- 
 agement. Shall comb honey be raised, 
 or shall the honey 'be taken in the ex- 
 tracted form ? Shall the apiary be man- 
 aged upon the visiting plan, or shall a 
 man be kept there all the time during the 
 swarming season ? I believe that, in the 
 majority of cases, extracted honey is 
 raised in out-apiaries, as, by this plan, 
 swarming can be so nearly controlled, 
 and the apiary visited only at intervals. 
 
 In raising comb honey, the difficulty 
 is that most of the colonies will swarm, 
 unless the queens are removed. Mr. 
 Manum, Mr. Elwood, Mr. France and a 
 few others practice removing the queens 
 just at the beginning of the swarming 
 season, and pronounce it a success. 
 
 I have, as yet, said nothing about the 
 number of colonies to put in an out- 
 apiary. It ought to have as many as the 
 location will bear; certainly enough to 
 make a day's work at each visit during 
 the busy season. It would be unprofit- 
 able to drive off five or six miles to do 
 only a part of a day's work. Where all 
 necessary tools, etc. , are kept at the out- 
 apiary, and all the bee-keeper has to 
 carry is himself, a bicycle is a very ex- 
 cellent kind of conveyance. It is fast, 
 always ready, requires little care, and 
 stings don't make it run away. If 
 the apiaries are in or near towns con- 
 nected by railroad, it is a great conven- 
 ience. 
 
 Instead of having any buildings at the 
 out-apiaries, some bee-keepers use a small 
 tent that is easily "struck" and carried 
 from one apiary to another. 
 
Apiarian Exhibits at Fairs. 
 
 ^>i~f=s^ HERE has been, in times past, 
 some opposition to the exhibi- 
 tion of bees, honey, wax, im- 
 plements, etc., at our State and 
 County fairs, exhibitions etc., on the 
 ground that such exhibitions were usually 
 made by supply dealers who, in their 
 eagerness to do business, did not hesitate 
 to urge a man to become a bee-keeper, in 
 order to effect a sale. If the fruit of the 
 seed sown at these gatherings were a crop 
 of producers, I might admit that, possi- 
 bly, there would be some injury to ex- 
 isting bee-keepers, but, after an • exper- 
 ience of many years in making such ex- 
 hibitions, I am thoroughly convinced that 
 nothing of the kind occurs; in fact, the 
 exhibitions of hives, implements, and 
 large quantities of honey tastily put up, 
 impresses the crowd with the true impor- 
 tance, magnitude and complexity of 
 modern bee culture; imparting the idea 
 that the bee-business is quite a business — 
 one that cannot be picked up and learn- 
 ed in a day by Tom, Dick and Harry. 
 
 Anything that increases the consump- 
 tion of honey is a benefit to the pursuit, 
 and, as usually managed, these bee and 
 honey shows call the attention of crowds 
 of people to the excellence and delicious- 
 ness of honey as a food, and the producer 
 and consumer are brought face to face. 
 At a fair, people are abroad with a dispo- 
 sition for sight-seeing, investigation and 
 the purchase of novelties and nick-nacks; 
 iMid a fine display of honey, together with 
 its sale in fancy packages, cannot help 
 
 benefiting the exhibitor as well as the 
 pursuit. Honey ought to be put up in 
 small packages. It may be difficult to 
 put it up in packages so small that one 
 can be sold for five cents, but I believe it 
 has been done, while there is no difficulty 
 in putting up honey in packages that may 
 be sold for ten or twenty-five cents each. 
 People at fairs don't want to be burdened 
 with heavy or bulky packages, and the 
 honey must be put up in such shape that 
 it can be eaten upon the grounds, or else 
 carried in the pocket or hand bag with- 
 out danger of leakage. I remember that, 
 one year, at the Michigan State Fair, Mr. 
 H. D. Cutting sold nearly $40 worth of 
 honey put up in pound and half-pound, 
 square, glass bottles and in small glass 
 pails, tast fall, at the Detroit Exposi- 
 tion, at least 1,500 pounds of "Honey 
 Jumbles" were sold by three exhibitors 
 in the bee and honey department. These 
 "jumbles" or cakes, are made with honey 
 instead of sugar, and the honey used is of 
 a low grade. Their sale is rapidly in- 
 creasing, and is, of course, a benefit to 
 honey producers. Such management 
 certainly does the pursuit of bee-keeping 
 no harm, while it is a benefit, to the one 
 making the exhibit. 
 
 Neither ought the social feature to be 
 overlooked. Every bee-keeper attending 
 the fair hunts up the "Bee and Hohey 
 Department, "and only one who has been 
 at an exhibition knows of the many new 
 acquaintances thus formed and the old 
 ones that are renewed. It is well to have 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CIJLTURE. 
 
 73 
 
 one day set apart as "Bee-Keepers' Day," 
 giving the date in advance in the bee 
 journals, then all bee-keepers will be 
 present on the same day. When possi- 
 ble to do so, it is an excellent plan for 
 two or three, or more, exhibitors to club 
 together and take a tent, or a portable 
 house, each bringing his share of bedding, 
 provisions and utensils, and live a la 
 picnic during the fair. Some of the 
 happiest hours of my life have been spent 
 in going through just such experiences 
 with boop companions. 
 
 I doubt very much whether the exhibi- 
 tion of bees at fairs is of any great advan- 
 tage to the pursuit. The most that can 
 be said in their favor is that they attract 
 attention. But there is certainly no ne- 
 cessity for exhibiting full colonies. A 
 single-comb nucleus with a queen and a 
 few drones and workers, together with 
 brood in different stages of development, 
 can be made to show more that is really 
 interesting than can be shown with a full 
 colony. 
 
 Of course, it is impossible to go on and 
 cover, in detail, all the points in regard 
 to making an apiarian exhibition at a 
 fair, as circumstances vary greatly, but 
 I will give a few hints. Extracted honey 
 must be shown in glass. Not in common 
 green glass, but in white, flint glass. 
 Have tin foil caps over the corks, and 
 small, tasty labels. Aim to get a white 
 or light colored background for extracted 
 honey. A dark color gives it a muddy or 
 dull appearance. A pyramid of extracted 
 honey, in bottles, in front of a window, is 
 a beautiful sight; the light "shimmering 
 and glimmering" as it passes through 
 the bottles and their contents. Comb 
 honey must be in cases with glass next 
 the comb. There is seldom a fair ground 
 with no bees near it, hence, no honey 
 should be exposed. All honey should be 
 shut up close and no stickiness left on 
 the outside of packages. Wax should be 
 molded into fanciful shapes. Honey and 
 wax should be piled up in pyramids, or 
 in some striking shape. Let the beginner 
 not try to show a great multitude of 
 things, but let what he does show be as 
 
 good as it is possible for him to show. 
 Competition is so very keen, at least 
 where the premiums are liberal, that 
 it is folly to expect premiums upon 
 second-class products. 
 
 Now that I have reached the subject of 
 premiums, it may be well to give what I 
 call a "model" premium list. It is near- 
 ly the same as used by the Detroit Expo- 
 sition, and by the Michigan State Fair. 
 I may have placed the premiums at a 
 higher figure than most societies would 
 care to use, but the amounts can be easily 
 reduced, keeping the proportions as they 
 are. 
 
 1st 2d 3d 
 Most attractive display of comb 
 
 honey $35 20 10 
 
 Specimen of comb honey, not 
 less than twenty pounds, 
 quality and manner of put- 
 ting up for market to be 
 
 considered 10 5 
 
 Most attractive display of ex- 
 tracted honey 35 20 10 
 
 Specimen of extracted honey, 
 not less than twenty pounds, 
 quality and manner of put- 
 ting up for market to be 
 
 considered 10 5 
 
 Most attractive display of bees- 
 wax 20 10 
 
 Specimen of beeswax, not less 
 than ten pounds, soft, bright 
 yellow wax to be gi,ven the 
 
 preference 6 3 
 
 Single-comb nucleus Italian 
 
 bees 10 5 
 
 Single-comb nucleus black 
 
 bees 10 5 
 
 Single-comb nucleus Syrian 
 
 bees lo 5 
 
 Single-comb nucleus Carniolan 
 
 bees 10 5 
 
 SWEEPSTAKES ON BEES. 
 Display, in single-comb nuclei, 
 of the greatest variety of the 
 
 different races of bees 10 5 
 
 Collection of queen bees of 
 
 different varieties 16 8 
 
 Honey vinegar, not less than 
 one gallon, shown in glass.. 6 3 
 
74 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 Assortment of honey candies, 4 2 
 
 Pastry made with honey 4 2 
 
 The best specimens of the best 
 honey producing plants, 
 pressed and mounted, not to 
 exceed twenty-five varieties, 15 8 
 
 SWEEPSTAKES. 
 The largest, best, most inter- 
 esting, attractive and instruc- 
 tive exhibition in this depart- 
 ment, all things considered, 35 20 10 
 
 I think bee-keepers would prefer to 
 have "supplies" included in the premium 
 list, but the managers of fairs have de- 
 cided against offering premiums, on ac- 
 count of the difficulty of securing satis- 
 factory decisions. The best we can do is 
 to have a "sweepstakes" premium offered 
 upon the largest and best exhibition; 
 then supplies will count. 
 
 A judge should never be compelled to 
 take an exhibitor's word for anything. 
 L,et the article exhibited show for itself. 
 Don't offer premiums on samples of dif- 
 ferent kinds of honey, when they can be 
 so easily gotten up for the occasion by 
 mixing. Don't put at the head of the 
 list such requirements as: "Honey must 
 be of this season's crop;" or, "Must be 
 the product of the exhibitor;" when 
 there is no way of knowing whether they 
 are lived up to. 
 
 In my experience, one man to award 
 the premiums, and he an expert, has giv- 
 en better satisfaction than three judges, 
 It is difficult, and often expensive, to get 
 three men that are experts, and, even 
 then, the work is not always done so 
 conscientiously, because it is not so easy 
 to place the responsibility, each being 
 able to shield himself behind the "other 
 two." 
 
 Upon this subject of judging, there is 
 one other point often neglected that 
 ought to be printed in connection with 
 the premiums, and that is a "scale of 
 
 points" for deciding in regard to the 
 merits of exhibits. Particularly is this 
 true in regard to honey. Miss West of 
 this city suggested, in Gleanings, the 
 following, and I think well enough of it 
 to copy and recommend it: 
 
 Honey — Color, 5; Body, 5; Flavor, 5; 
 Comb — Straightness, 5; Color of Capping, 
 5; Completeness of Capping, 5; Uniform- 
 ity, 10; Style, 10. PoSSlBl,E, 50. By 
 " Uniformity " is meant the closeness of 
 resemblance in the sections composing 
 the specimen. "Style" includes the at- 
 tractiveness of the section and case, also 
 absence of propolis. 
 
 And now a parting word to the begin- 
 ner. If you make an exhibit at a fair, 
 don't get excited. Don't worry. Keep 
 cool and have patience. Many unpleas- 
 ant mishaps may occur, but don't worry 
 over them; and, above all, don't let the 
 losing of premiums so "sour" you as to 
 spoil your own enjoyment and that of 
 your comrades. When you leave home, 
 have everything in readiness, as nearly 
 as possible, to put right up. Pack every- 
 thing carefully, but in such a manner 
 that it can be easily and quickly unpack- 
 ed and repacked. If possible, go with 
 your exhibition, even if you are thereby 
 obliged to ride in a freight car (I have 
 done it many a time and enjoyed it too), 
 and see your goods handled, or better 
 still, handle them yourself. And when 
 the fair is over, don't "go crazy" to get 
 off the grounds the very next minute. I 
 have known of men sitting up all night 
 swearing and sweating, and fuming and 
 fretting because "their car didn't come," 
 or something of that sort. At the close 
 of a large fair, an immense amount of 
 goods are on the grounds; they have been 
 several days in accumulating, and it is 
 impossible to move them all in an hour's 
 time. Expect to cut at least one "eye 
 tooth" at each fair you attend. 
 
The Relation of Food to the Wintering of Bees. 
 
 ■ N THE Southern States, and other 
 places not blessed with a stern win- 
 ter, where bees can enjoy frequent 
 ■'-^ flights, It matters little what the 
 food is, so long as it is not actually poi- 
 sonous. By this I mean, any kind of 
 sweet like sugar, honey, or even honey 
 dew, will answer as food. In these mild 
 climates little or no protection is needed, 
 but, as higher latitudes are reached, 
 chaff hives are needed and there mast be 
 some care exercised in regard to food. 
 As we journey still further from the 
 equator, it is only cellars and the best of 
 food that bring forth uniform results. 
 
 It has been asserted that honey is the 
 "natural" food of bees, and that nothing 
 is to be gained by substituting cane sugar. 
 It must be remembered that the ' 'natural' ' 
 home of 1 he bee is that of a warm climate 
 where there are no long spells of confine- 
 ment caused by continued cold. Honey 
 is, of course, the "natural" food of bees, 
 but this fact does not prevent their dy- 
 ing sometimes as the result of its con- 
 sumption, when a diet of cane sugar 
 would have saved their lives. 
 
 In my opinion, food is the pivotal 
 point upon which turns the wintering of 
 bees in our Northern States. Food is the 
 fulcrum, and temperature the long end 
 of the lever. 
 
 The whole question in a nut shell is 
 just this: The loss of bees in winter, 
 aside from that caused by diarrhoea, is 
 not worth counting. It is diarrhoea that 
 kills our bees. What causes it ? An over- 
 
 loading of the intestines with no opportu- 
 nity tor unloading them. Cold confines 
 the bees to their hives. The greater the 
 cold the larger are the quantities of food 
 consumed to keep up the animal heat. 
 The more food there is consumed, the 
 sooner are the intestines overloaded. 
 Doesn't it seem clear that the character 
 of the food consumed would have an 
 effect upon the amount of accumulation 
 in the intestines ? In the digestion of 
 cane sugar there is scarcely any residue. 
 Honey is generally quite free from nitrog- 
 enous matter, being well supplied with 
 oxygen, and when free from floating 
 grains of pollen is a very good and safe 
 winter food, although not as good as 
 properly prepared sugar syrflp, which 
 never contains nitrogen but does possess 
 more oxygen. The excreta from diarrhe- 
 tic bees is almost wholly pollen grains, 
 in a digested or partly digested state, 
 with a slight mixture of organic matter. 
 What overloads the intestines of the bees 
 is this nitrogenous matter that they con- 
 sume either as grains of pollen floating 
 in the honey, or by eating the bee bread 
 itself. 
 
 Repeated experiments have proved be- 
 j-ond the shadow of a doubt that, as a 
 winter food for bees, pure cane sugar has 
 no superior. With this as an exclusive 
 diet, bees never die with the dysentery; 
 and, if kept in a temperature ranging 
 from 35° to 45°, they are all but certain 
 to winter successfully. This being the 
 case, I do not wonder that some are ready 
 
76 
 
 ADVANCEID BEH-CULTURE;. 
 
 to ask why not take away the honey in 
 the fall and feed the bees sugar ? The 
 objections to the use of sugar as a winter 
 food for bees are that every pound of 
 sugar used puts one more pound of honey 
 on the market; the work of extracting 
 the honey and feeding the sugar is some- 
 thing; the bee-keeper often has a crop of 
 honey that is meeting with poor sale, 
 and he has not the money to invest in 
 sugar; while some object to its use on the 
 ground that it lends color to the cry of 
 "adulteration." 
 
 The use of sugar as a winter food for 
 bees unquestionably puts a little more 
 honey on the market, but this ought not 
 to weigh so very heavily against the cer- 
 tainty of wintering the bees. Neither 
 need there be any labor of extracting 
 the honey in the fall, as by proper man- 
 agement, such as contraction of the brood 
 nest, the honey can nearly all be forced 
 into the supers, leaving the brood combs 
 nearly empty at the end of the season. 
 What little honey remains in the corners 
 will not be consumed until the next 
 spring, when frequent flights will pre- 
 vent all troubles that might arise from 
 its consumption. With proper feeders 
 (the Heddon, for instance), tin cans and 
 oil stoves for tnaking the syrup, feeding 
 is not a long nor laborious job. In re- 
 gard to causing people to believe that by 
 some hocus pocus the sugar that is fed 
 gets into the surplus, no one need know 
 of the feeding, except it might be, in 
 some cases, an immediate neighbor, and 
 the bee-keeper ought to enjoy his neigh- 
 bor's confidence to that degree that the 
 exact truth can be told him and be be- 
 lieved. As in regard to the increased 
 amount of honey that the use of sugar 
 as winter stores puts upon the market, so 
 the talk about adulteration is overbal- 
 anced by the certainty of carrying the 
 bees safely through the winter. The 
 greatest objection to the use of sugar for 
 winter stores is the advancing of money 
 to buy the sugar while the honey may be 
 unsold and of slow sale. The price of 
 augar is now so low that, unless the price 
 
 of honey drops in proportion, there will 
 be some more inducement to use sugar 
 for winter stores. 
 
 If sugar is to be fed, it ought to be giv- 
 en early, as the bees then have a chance 
 to handle it over, and, in this handling, 
 its character is somewhat changed by 
 the addition of the secretions from their 
 glands. There is also an opportunity of 
 sealing over the syrup, when it is less 
 likely to be inj ured by changes in tem- 
 perature, by moisture, etc. If the syrup 
 is fed late, it must be made thick, as the 
 bees have no time to evaporate it; and 
 there must be something added to pre- 
 vent the syrup from crystalizing. After 
 repeated trials, I give my preference to 
 honey. From ten to twenty per cent, of 
 honey is sufficient. September is early 
 enough to feed. When feeding /las been 
 neglected until it is so late and the 
 weather so cool that the bees will not 
 leave the cluster and go up into a feeder, 
 it may be managed by filling the feeder, 
 with hot syrup and placing it under the 
 hive. The heat from the syrup will warm 
 up and arouse the bees, when they 
 will come down and carry up the feed. 
 
 But all cannot, or may not wish to, 
 use sugar for winter stores, and many do 
 not need to use sugar to insure success- 
 ful wintering of their bees. There is a 
 great difference in localities. Where one 
 has successfully pursued the same course 
 year after year, it is doubtful if a change 
 would be desirable; but what shall the 
 man do who loses heavily nearly every 
 winter, yet cannot, or will not, use sugar ? 
 Possibly he can so manage that his win- 
 ter stores will come from a different 
 source. O. O. Poppleton takes the 
 grouud that the best honey for winter 
 stores is that secured from the most 
 bountiful yields. There may something 
 in this, but I know of one locality where 
 the fall flow is always the most abundant, 
 and I might almost say always abundant, 
 yet so surely will it kill bees that the 
 most extensive bee-keeper in that local- 
 ity, after an experience of many years, 
 kills his bees in the fall rather than at- 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE, 
 
 77 
 
 tempt to winter them upon this honey by 
 any method. But bee-keepers can do 
 this: Notice if any particular kind of 
 honey is more likely to give trouble, and 
 then avoid its use as winter stores. Part 
 
 s ummer stands, and part put into the 
 cellar. In a warm open winter, the bees 
 out-of-doors will stand the better chance; 
 in a severe winter the odds will be in 
 favor of the cellar — and their owner must 
 
 of the bees may be protected on their take his chances. 
 
 >^>^^f^tm£^4^'^f<^ 
 
 Out-Door Wintering. 
 
 F BEES can enjoy frequent flights, 
 out of doors is the p lace to winter 
 them. If deprived of these flights, 
 '-^ a temperature of about 45° enables 
 them to bear a much longer confinement 
 than does a temperature below freezing. 
 In the South, frequent flights are assured; 
 in the North, no dependence can be plac- 
 ed upon the matter. Some winters are 
 "open," or there are January thaws, al- 
 lowing the bees to eniov cleansing flights, 
 while other winters hold them close 
 prisoners for four or five months. It is 
 this element of uncertainty attending the 
 wintering of bees in the open air that has 
 driven so many bee-keepers to the adop- 
 tion of cellar wintering. Still, there are 
 some bee-keepers who, from some pecul- 
 iarity of location , winter their bees in the 
 open air with quite uniform success; 
 others are compelled, for the present, at 
 least, to winter the bees out of doors; in 
 short, a large portion of the bees, even 
 in the North, are wintered in the open 
 air, and probably will be for a long time 
 to come, and while my preference is the 
 cellar, I have no desire to ignore the out- 
 door method. 
 
 It does not seem as though the ques- 
 tion of whether bees should be protected, 
 in the North, need receive any consider- 
 ation whatever, yet it has been objected 
 to on the grounds that the packing be- 
 comes damp, that it deprives the bees of 
 the warmth of the sun and that they 
 
 sometimes fail to fly in the winter (be- 
 cause the outside warmth is so slow in 
 reaching them) when bees in single-wall 
 hives may be in full flight. There is oc- 
 casionally a still, mild day in winter up- 
 on which the sun shines out bright and 
 strong for an hour or two, and bees in 
 single-wall hives enjoy a real cleansing 
 flight, while the momentary rise in the 
 temperature passes away ere it has pene- 
 trated the thick walls of a chaff hive. 
 On the other hand, there are days and 
 weeks and sometimes months unbroken 
 by these rises in temperature; and the 
 bees must depend for their existence up- 
 on the heat generated by themselves, 
 and the more perfect the non-conductor 
 by which they are surrounded, the less 
 will be the loss of heat. When bees are 
 well protected, there is less necessity for 
 flight than when the protection is slight. 
 If the bee-keeper thinks, however, that 
 bees in chaff hives ought to fly on a warm 
 day, but they don't fly, he has only to re- 
 move the covering over the bees and al- 
 low them to fly from the tops of the hives. 
 For several winters I left quite a number 
 of colonies unprotected. I discontinued 
 the practice only when thoroughly con- 
 vinced that, in this locality, the losses 
 were lessened by protection. In mild 
 winters the bees came through in pretty 
 fine condition. In severe winters the 
 bees in the outside spaces, or ranges of 
 combs, died first; the cluster became 
 
78 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 smaller; the bees in more ranges died; 
 and, by spring, all were dead, or the col- 
 ony so reduced in numbers, and the sur- 
 vivors so lacking in vitality, as to be 
 practically worthless. 
 
 I have never seen any ill effects from 
 dampness, but I have always given 
 abundant ventilation above the packing. 
 When the warm air from the cluster pass- 
 es up through the packing and is met by 
 the cold, outer air, some condens- 
 ation of moisture takes place. This 
 moistens the surface of the packing 
 slightly, but it is comparatively dry 
 underneath. With a good strong 
 colony of bees, and ventilation above 
 the packing, I have never known of 
 trouble from moisture. 
 
 In the giving of protection, chaff hives 
 have the advantage of being always ready 
 for winter, and of doing away with the 
 labor and untidiness of packing and un- 
 packing, but they are expensive and 
 cumbersome. It is some work to pack 
 bees in the fall and unpack them in the 
 spring, but light, single-wall, readily- 
 movable hives during the working sea- 
 son are managed with enough less labor 
 to more than compensate for that of 
 packing and unpacking. Then there is 
 another point. The work of packing 
 and unpacking comes when there is com - 
 parative leisure, while the extra work, 
 caused by great unwieldy hives, comes 
 at a time when the bee-keeper is work- 
 ing on the "keen jump." 
 
 For packing material, I have used 
 wheat chaff, forest leaves, planer shav- 
 ings and dry sawdust. I have never used 
 cork-dust, but it is probably the best 
 packing material. Its non-conductivity 
 is nearly twice that of chaff, while it never 
 becomes damp. The only objection is 
 that it is not readily obtainable and usu- 
 ally costs something, while the other 
 substances mentioned cost nothing. 
 What they lack in non-conductivity is 
 made up in quantity. And this brings up 
 the point of the proper thickness for the 
 packing. I have often thrust my hand 
 into the packing surrounding a populous 
 colony of bees, and found the warmth 
 
 perceptible at a distance of four inches 
 from the side and six inches from the top. 
 This would seem to indicate the thickness 
 when chaff or sawdust is used. I pre- 
 sume packing has often been condemned 
 when it was not more than half done — 
 that is, when not enough material was 
 used. I don't appreciate the arguments 
 of those who advocate thin packing. I 
 don't believe that the benefit of the heat 
 from the sun can compensate for the 
 lack of protection during the months of 
 extreme cold. 
 
 Hollow walls with no packing have 
 their advocates; and it has been asked if 
 these dead (?) airspaces were not equally 
 as good non-conductors of heat as those 
 filled with chaff. They are not. In the 
 first place the air is not "dead," it is con- 
 stantly moving. The air next the inside 
 wall becomes warm and rises; that next 
 the outer wall cools and settles; thus 
 there is a constant circulation that robs 
 the inner wall of its heat. 
 
 If chaff hives are not used, how shall 
 the packing be kept in place ? I know 
 of nothing better than boxes made of 
 cheap, thin lumber. If there is lack of 
 room for storing them in summer, they 
 can be so made as to be easily "knocked 
 down" and stacked up when not in use. 
 Of course, bees can be packed more 
 cheaply by setting the hives in long rows, 
 building a long box about them, and fill- 
 ing it with material used for packing. 
 With this method, the packing must be 
 postponed until there is little danger of 
 the bees flying again until they have for- 
 gotten their old locations; else some bees 
 will be lost, or some colonies get more 
 than their share of bees. When the bees 
 have a "cleansing flight" in winter, 
 there is also a likelihood of bees returning 
 to the wrong hives. Then when the 
 bees are unpacked in the spring and 
 moved to their proper places, there is 
 more confusion and mixing; but I don't 
 look upon this as so very serious a mat- 
 ter. At this time of the year, other 
 things being equal, a bee is worth just 
 about as much in one hive as in another. 
 If there is any difference in the strength 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 79 
 
 of the colonies, the weaker ones might 
 be left nearest to where the bees were 
 unpacked. 
 
 Speaking of being compelled to wait 
 about packing Ihe bees until they were 
 not likely to fly again until some time 
 in the winter, reminds me that advantages 
 have been claimed for early packing; 
 that the bees in single-wall hives only 
 wear themselves out with frequent flights 
 that are to no purpose, while those 
 that are packed are not called out by 
 every passing ray of sunshine; that the 
 early packed bees sooner get themselves 
 settled down for their winter's nap, and 
 are in better shape when winter comes. 
 It is possible there is something in this, 
 but there were two or three years in 
 which I tried packing a colony or two as 
 early as the first of September; and I 
 continued to pack a colony every two or 
 three days until the fore part of Novem- 
 ber, and I was unable to discern any ad- 
 vantage in very early packing. If the 
 bees are protected before freezing weather 
 comes, I believe that is early enough. 
 
 There is one other point that ought not 
 to be neglected in preparing the bees for 
 
 winter, whether in doors or out, and that 
 is the leaving of a space below the combs. 
 When wintered out of doors there ought 
 to be a rim two inches high placed under 
 each hive. This not only allows the 
 dead bees to drop away from the -combs 
 to a place where they will dry up instead 
 of moulding between the combs. Then 
 if there is an entrance above the rim 
 there will be no possibility of the entrance 
 becoming clogged. This space under 
 the combs seems to be a wonderful aid 
 in bringing the bees through in fine con- 
 dition, and I am not certain why. 
 
 Weak colonies can seldom be success- 
 fully wintered out of doors. They can- 
 not generate sufficient heat. In the cel- 
 lar, where the temperature seldom goes 
 below 40°, quite weak colonies can be 
 successfully wintered. 
 
 As I understand it, this whole matter 
 of out door wintering of bees might be 
 summed up in a few words. Populous 
 colonies; plenty of good food, and 
 thorough protection. Simple, isn't it? 
 Yet there is a world of meaning wrapped 
 up in those few words. 
 
 ft«^>i;<^?*^ 
 
 Ventilation of Bee-Cellars. 
 
 HFEW years ago "sub-earth" 
 ventilation of bee cellars was 
 almost universally recommend- 
 ed. Nearly every one who 
 built a bee-cellar, also buried 200 or 300 
 feetof drain tile; the outer end connect- 
 ing with the open air and the inner end 
 entering the cellar. To remove the air 
 from the cellar, a pipe, connecting with 
 a stove pipe in the room above, extend- 
 ed down through the floor to within a 
 few inches of the cellar bottom. The 
 draft in the stove pipe "pulled up" the 
 
 air from the cellar, and more flowed in 
 through the sub-earth pipe to take its 
 place. In passing through the sub-earth 
 pipe, the air was warmed. If there were 
 no stove pipe with which to connect the 
 outlet pipe, it was extended upwards un- 
 til it reached the open air. The air in the 
 cellar, being warmer than the outside air, 
 flowed out of the upper ventilator and 
 more air flowed in through the sub-earth 
 tube. 
 
 In order to keep the temperature even 
 there was much opening and closing of 
 
So 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 the ventilating tubes. In cold weather it 
 was often necessarj- to leave the openings 
 closed several days or even weeks. At 
 such times it was noticed that the bees 
 suffered no inconvenience. Not only 
 this, but it was often noticed that when 
 the ventilators were opened, the in-rush 
 of fresh, cool air aroused the bees and 
 made them uneasy. Finally, the ventila- 
 tors were opened less and less, and, at 
 last, they were left closed all the time. 
 
 The amount of air needed by bees va- 
 ries greatly according to circumstances. 
 When they are excited and full of honey, 
 as is the case with a swarm, the amount 
 of air needed is very great. If they can 
 be kept quiet, a very little air will suffice. 
 In winter, bees are in a semi-dormant 
 state, one closely bordering on hiberna- 
 tion, as that word is properly understood, 
 and the amount of air necessary for their 
 maintainance is very slight. I believe it 
 was Mr. D. I,. Adair who, a number of 
 years ago, removed a box of surplus hon- 
 ey from a hive and, leaving the bees in 
 possession, pasted several layers of paper 
 over the entrance to the box. As all the 
 cracks and crevices were stopped with 
 propolis, the box was practically air tight. 
 The bees were -kept confined several 
 days, yet did not, apparently, suffer for 
 want of air. Mr. Heddon tells of some 
 man who, wishing to "take up" some of 
 his colonies in the fall, plastered up the 
 entrance with blue clay, expecting to 
 kill the bees by suffocation. Upon open- 
 
 ing the hives a few days later, imagine 
 the discomfiture of their owner at seeing 
 the bees fly right merrily. I have sever- 
 al times wintered bees successfully in 
 "clamps" where the bees were 'buried 
 two feet deep under frozen earth. Prof. 
 Cook even went so far as to hermetically 
 seal up two colonies by throwing water 
 over the hives and allowing it to freeze, 
 thus forming a cqating of ice over the 
 hives. The bees survived this treatment. 
 
 Special ventilation, simply for the sake 
 of secuing fresher or purer air, seems to 
 be almost unnecessary; the few bee-keep- 
 ers who plead for special ventilation do 
 so almost wholly upon the ground that 
 they can thereby more readily control the 
 temperature. If the bee repositories are 
 built sufficiently under ground it does 
 not seem as though ventilation would be 
 very much needed for controlling tem- 
 perature. 
 
 When bees settle down into that quies- 
 cent state that accompanies successful 
 wintering, their need of air is very slight 
 indeed. When their winter nap is ended, 
 and spring arouses them to activity and 
 to brood rearing, more air is needed. It 
 is then, if ever, that special ventilation is 
 a benefit, but as all that is needed can be 
 so easily secured by the occasional open- 
 ing of doors or windows at night, if it 
 ever becomes really necessary, it scarce- 
 ly seems worth while to go to the ex- 
 pense of laying sub-earth pipes. I should 
 not do it, nor advise it. 
 
 The Relation of Moisture to the Wintering of Bees. 
 
 f S IT an advantage to have the air of 
 our bee-cellars dry? Or, do the 
 bees winter more perfectly in a 
 ■ moist atmosphere ? Or, is this an 
 unimportant factor ? If it is important, 
 how shall we determine what degree of 
 moisture is most conducive to the health 
 
 of the bees, and, having decided this point, 
 what shall we do about it ? How can we 
 control the amount of moisture in the 
 air of our bee repositories ? All these 
 queries and many more, come to the 
 man who is thinking of wintering his 
 bees in a cellar. 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE- 
 
 f] 
 
 Whether bees can be successfully win- 
 tered in a damp cellar, depends largely, 
 ' almost wholly, upon the temperature of 
 the atmosphere. "If the repository be 
 damp, a degree of temperature higher in 
 proportion to the dampness should be 
 maintained." — N. \V. McLain. Refer- 
 ring to this statement, Mr. Frank Che- 
 shire says: "The reason being that wa- 
 ter has an enormous capacity for heat 
 (specific heat) whether in the liquid or 
 vaporous form; the latter abstracts heat 
 from the bees and intensives their strug- 
 gle, " Dr. Youmans says: "Air which 
 is already saturated with moisture re- 
 fuses to receive the perspiration offered it 
 from the skin and lungs and the sewage 
 of the system is dammed up. ' ' 
 
 A moist air very readily absorbs heat, 
 and more quickly robs the bees of that 
 element so essential to life; hence it will 
 be seen whj' a moist atmosphere must 
 also be a warm one if disastrous results 
 are to be avoided. 
 
 There is also another point, in the win- 
 tering of bees, upon which moisture has 
 a bearing, and that is in regard to its 
 tffejts upon the exhalations of the bees. 
 If the exhalations are not taken up read- 
 ily, the "sewage of the system is dammed 
 up." But little moisture is required to 
 saturate cold air; that is, it will absorb but 
 little moisture, the point when it will 
 receive no more being soon reached. As 
 the temperature rises, the absorbing ca- 
 pacity of the air increases. When air of 
 a high temperature, at that of our bodies, 
 or nearly that, is saturated, or nearly so, 
 with moisture, the exhalations from the 
 lungs and skin are taken up but slowly; 
 we are oppressed and say the weather is 
 "muggy." This explains why we feel 
 better on bright, clear days. Heating air 
 increases its power of absorption, hence 
 we enjoy a fire on a damp day. If the 
 air of a cellar is dry, it will be readily 
 seen that the temperature may be allowed 
 to go much lower. In other words, a 
 cold, dry atmosphere, or a damp, warm 
 one, may be about equal so far as effects 
 are concerned. This is a point that bee- 
 keepers have not sufficiently considered. 
 
 We have had many reports of the suc- 
 cessful wintering of bees at such and 
 such a degree of temperature, but noth- 
 ing is said as to the degree of saturation. 
 Bee-keepers ought to use a wet-bulb 
 thermometer in their cellars; then let the 
 degree of saturation be given with that 
 of the temperature, and we would have 
 something approaching accuracy. I say 
 "approaching accuracy," because the 
 strength of the colonies, and the manner 
 in which they are protected, have a bear- 
 ing. A populous, well-protected colony 
 can warm up the inside of the hive, ex- 
 pelling the moisture and increasing the 
 absorbing capacity of the air. Building 
 a fire in a room on a damp day is the same 
 in principle. 
 
 As mentioned in the preceding para- 
 graph, the way to decide in regard to the 
 amount of moisture in the air is by the 
 use of a wet-bulb thermometer. The 
 
 arrangement is very simple, and any of 
 my readers could make one. Attach two 
 ordinary thermometers side by side to a 
 piece of board. Just below them fasten 
 a tin cup for holding water. Make a 
 light covering of candle wicking for one 
 of the bulbs at the bottom of the ther- 
 mometer, allowing the wicking to extend 
 down into the water in the cup. The 
 
82 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CUIvTURE. 
 
 water will ascend the wicking and keep 
 the bulb constantly wet. There will, of 
 course, be evaporation from the wick sur- 
 rounding the bulb. Evaporation causes 
 a loss of heat; hence, the drier the air 
 the greater the evaporation, the greater 
 loss of heat, and the lower will go the 
 mercury in the wet-bulb thermometer. 
 The greater the difference in temperature 
 as shown between the wet and dry bulb 
 thermometers, the drier the air. In the 
 open air there is sometimes a difference 
 of 26°- 
 
 Ventilation of cellars has been objected 
 to on the ground that it brought moisture 
 into the cellar, This may be true, but 
 not in freezing weather. Frozen air, if 
 the expression is allowable, has a very 
 low point of saturation. That is, it will 
 hold but very little moisture, and when 
 it is brought into the higher temperature 
 of the cellar, and becomes warmed, its 
 capacity for absorption is g-eatly increas- 
 ed — it is ready to receive water instead of 
 giving it out. When the outside air 
 comes into a cellar, and and deposits 
 moisture upon the objects therein, it is 
 evident that the incoming air is warm 
 and moisture-laden — warmer than the 
 cellar and its contents. 
 
 Mould in bee repositories is usually 
 looked upon as something undesirable, 
 and I will admit that its appearance is 
 far from pleasant, but we must not for- 
 get that, in a certain sense, it is a plant — 
 the child of warmth and moisture — and 
 that the conditions necessary for its de- 
 
 velopment.may not be injurious to the 
 bees — may be more beneficial than a con- 
 dition under which mould does not de- 
 velop, viz., one of moisture and cold. A 
 very damp cellar ought to be warm 
 enough for the development of mould. 
 But the cellar need not be damp. It can 
 be made both warm and dry. These 
 matters of temperature and moisture are 
 under our control. Either by fires or going 
 into the earth, preferably the latter, we 
 can secure the proper temperature; and 
 by the use of lime to absorb the moisture, 
 a dry atmosphere can be secured. Cer- 
 tainly it is not much trouble to keep un- 
 slacked lime in the cellar. A bushel of 
 lime absorbs twenty-eight pounds of 
 water in the process of slacking. 
 
 While it is evident that moisture in 
 ordinary cellars is not injurious, provided 
 the temperature is high enough, it is a 
 great comfort to know that there is noth- 
 ing to fear from a dry atmosphere; that 
 we can indulge our fancy, if you choose 
 to call it that, for dry, sweet-smelling, 
 mouldless cellars, and know that the re- 
 sults will be harmless. 
 
 Some bee-keepers have asserted that 
 cellars dug in clay or hardpan are more 
 difficult to keep dry than when dug in 
 sandy or gravelly soil. Mr. J. H. Mar- 
 tin, of New York, says that a cellar in 
 hardpan, or even in clay, can be much 
 improved by digging down two or three 
 feet and filling it with stones at first, then 
 with gravel, and finishing up with a cov- 
 ering of cement. 
 
 Influence of Temperature in Wintering Bees. 
 
 ROE. ATWATER says, in the 
 Century, that the amount of 
 heat produced in the body is so 
 ^-^ large that, if there were no way 
 
 for it to escape, there would be enough 
 
 body to the temperature of boiling water 
 in thirty-six hours. Thi.s heat is gradual- 
 ly passing off by radiation. To prevent 
 too rapid a radiation we cover our bodies 
 with clothing; and, for the same reason, 
 
 in an average well-fed man to heat his we surround our bees in winter with 
 
ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 83 
 
 chaff or some other non-conductor of 
 heat; but there is no way in which the 
 radiation of heat can be so complete- 
 ly controlled as by surrounding the 
 heat-producing body with an atmos- 
 phere of the proper temperature. There 
 is no method by which the most desirable 
 temperature for wintering bees can be so 
 completely secured as by placing the 
 hives in a cellar or special repository. 
 
 R. I/. Taylor, in an article in the Feb. 
 Review for 1888, so completely covered 
 the subject of temperature as it effects 
 the winterinc; of bees in cellars, that I 
 cannot do better than to make copious 
 extracts from said article. He says: "I 
 think, it is a truth that should not be 
 forgotten that no one can determine, ex- 
 cept approximately, the best temperature 
 for bees in another's winter repository. 
 The condition of bees as to numbers, the 
 warmth and ventilation of the hive, the 
 character of their hives, and the state of 
 the repository as to moisture, have each 
 to be considered in deciding upon tem- 
 perature. 
 
 Of course the bee-keeper cares nothing 
 about the temperature in itself; what he 
 is interested in is in knowing what the 
 condition is in which the bees pass the 
 winter with the least loss of vitality. In 
 what manner temperature affects this 
 condition is really a subsidiary question. 
 If we could agree upon the primary 
 question, I think there would be little 
 difficulty in solving the subsidiary one. 
 
 What are the distinguishing marks of 
 the condition most desirable for the well 
 being of the bees ? 
 
 We know that at the beginning of their 
 season of rest, bees cluster closely and 
 assume a state of extreme repose, and we 
 know that so strong is this instinct that 
 this state, late in the fall, continues in a 
 temperature that at another season of the 
 year would cause extreme activity. 
 There is no doubt that this is the state 
 best suited to the preservation of the 
 physical powers of the bee. Labor, 
 activity, anxiety, are wearing to mortal 
 flesh. To live long, onS must live slowly. 
 
 We wish our bees to have the same de- 
 gree of physical vigor in April which 
 they possess in November. I would em- 
 phasize the adverb in the phrase 'cluster 
 dosHy' in using it as an earmark of the 
 condition desired. The quietness sought 
 should be a quietness to the eye and not 
 to the ear only. The right cluster is 
 knit together, and the individual bees 
 thereof only aroused to full conscious- 
 ness by positive disturbance. Bees in a 
 loose cluster, or spread through the hive, 
 often make little sound while they are 
 wearing themselves out by premature 
 brood-rearing or by over feeding. How 
 does temperature affect the desired con- 
 dition ? 
 
 Most bee-keepers know that tempera- 
 ture below a certain point causes activity 
 among the bees on account of the neces- 
 sity they feel of keeping up the warmth 
 of the cluster by exercise, in order to 
 prevent themselves sinking into such a 
 degree of chilliness that they shall no 
 longer have the power to resuscitate 
 themselves; and all know that as the peri- 
 od of rest lengthens, the bees become 
 more and more susceptible to a high 
 temperature, and are very likely to be 
 pushed by it into unseasonable activity. 
 Again, the temperature may be so low 
 and so long continued that, notwithstand- 
 ing their efforts, they perish of either 
 cold or starvation. 
 
 Of course the temperature that deter- 
 mines the welfare of a colony is that 
 within its own hive, so it becomes very 
 important in fixing the temperature to 
 consider the strength of the colonies, 
 and the size, wartpth and ventilation of 
 the hives. A temperature that would 
 enable a weak colony to winter safely 
 would almost surely greatly injure a 
 strong colony in a hive of like size and 
 condition, unless its stores were of good 
 quality, and vice versa. Weak colonies 
 should be protected by contraction and 
 a closer hive, the stronger should be giv- 
 en more ventilation. A moist atmosphere 
 conveys away animal heat much more 
 rapidly than a dry one, so that the best 
 
84 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 temperature in one cellar might vary 
 many degrees from that which would be 
 best in another. 
 
 I have no doubt in my own mind that 
 with stores which are exceptional, every 
 normal colony would winter well in any 
 ordinary bee cellar, where the tempera- 
 ture ranges between 32° and 50°, Fah- 
 renheit, and that we err when we at- 
 tempt to make successful wintering 
 indoors turn on anything but food; 
 still, no doubt the temperature may 
 be made to assist the bees in contend- 
 ing with the distresses arising from 
 unfit food. Warmth makes the discom- 
 fort of their diarrhoetic disease less un- 
 bearable. In a low temperature bees 
 afflicted with diarrhoea soon periSh mis- 
 erably. So, for bees thus diseased, I 
 would provide a high temperature; say 
 about 50°, thereby enabling the dying to 
 leave the hive, ths diseased to. void their 
 excreta outside the cluster, and the well 
 to make a more courageous fight for life. 
 
 I need hardly add anything upon this 
 part of the subject, and shall only say 
 farther that, in my own cellars, where 
 the air is neither very moist nor very dry, 
 and where there is no draughts, I consid- 
 er a temperature of 40° to 44° the best 
 for good colonies in hives from which 
 the bottom boards are entirely removed. 
 If the bottom boards be not removed, I 
 think 5° lower would be about equiva- 
 lent. 
 
 In order to have the temperature as 
 desired, it becomes important to have 
 one's bees in a repository of which the 
 temperature is nearly independent of the 
 
 outside changes. This is, I think, se- 
 cured far the most satisfactorily by hav- 
 ing the repository entirely, or at least 
 very largely, below the surface of the 
 earth." 
 
 As the temperature is higher at the 
 upper part of a cellar, the weak colonies 
 should be placed in the topmost tier of 
 hives. 
 
 It has been urged that as spring ap- 
 proaches and breeding begins, the tem- 
 perature of the cellar should be raised. 
 With a large number of colonies the in- 
 creased activity of the bees would, of 
 itself, have a tendency in this direction. 
 If there are only a few colonies, artificial 
 means of raising, the temperature are 
 sometimes resorted to. Some have used 
 oil stoves in the hatchway to the cellar, 
 others have warmed the air with wood or 
 coal stoves. Mr. H. R. Boardman, who 
 has had much successful experience in 
 wintering bees in cellars, prefers to have 
 a bee cellar with two apartments, in one 
 of which is a stove. When it is necessary 
 to resort to artificial heat he warms the 
 air in the ante room, and then admits it 
 to the bee room. In the use of artificial 
 heat he does not find it necessary to em- 
 ploy it, constantly, or every day, in fact, 
 he says that the best results are secured 
 by giving the bees the benefit of a sum- 
 mer temperature for a short time once a 
 week, and then letting them alone. 
 They will, after being warmed up, be- 
 come quiet in a short time, and remain so 
 for several days, and no serious results 
 need be apprehended from cold, if in a 
 frost-proof cellar. 
 
Comforts and Conveniences in the Apiary. 
 
 Y THESE are meant those 
 things not absolutely essential 
 to success, but that serve to 
 render more smooth and pleas- 
 ant the somewhat "thorny" path trod- 
 den by the bee-keeper. To illustrate: 
 H. R. Boardman has a cart, for carrying 
 bees to and from his bee cellar, with 
 which there is no necessity for even lift- 
 ing the hives to place them on the cart. 
 It is made like a^ wheel barrow with two 
 wheels, and having two long prongs pro- 
 jecting in front. When the cart is wheel- 
 ed up to a hive, one prong goes one side 
 of the hive and the other goes the other 
 side, when, by depressing the handles, 
 the hive is lifted from the ground; cleats 
 upon the sides of the hive prevent it from 
 slipping down between the projecting 
 prongs. Mr. J. A. Green has an arrange- 
 ment for opening the honey house door 
 by simply stepping upon a pedal. When 
 both hands are occupied with tools, a 
 case of honey, or something of that sort, 
 such an arrangement is quite a comfort. 
 Mr, Green is also the man who keeps 
 kerosene oil in a spring bottom oil can to 
 squirt on the fuel in a smoker when 
 "firing up." 
 
 Most of theSe comforts are compara- 
 tively inexpensive. To think of and 
 secure them is often more work than to 
 earn the money with which to buy them, 
 but their ppsses.sion often makes all the 
 difference between a season of pleasure 
 and one bordering on drudgery, to say 
 nothing of the bearing they may have 
 upon the profit. These little helps and 
 
 conveniences are, in one sense, the oil 
 that makes the great apicultural machine 
 move smoothly, and I believe it worth 
 while to enumerate a few of them. 
 
 I will begin with the bee-keeper him- 
 self, or rather with his clothing, as his 
 comfort is largely depended upon that. 
 When there is very much shaking and 
 brushing of bees to be done I prefer to 
 wear light calf skin boots with the trous- 
 ers tucked inside. When shoes are worn, 
 the trousers must be tucked inside the 
 stockings, or tied up with a string, (which 
 looks so outlandish) or else "dose inno- 
 cent pees vas grawling mine trousers 
 amoung, ' ' which begets a feeling far from 
 comfortable. I don't believe in sacrific- 
 ing very much comfort for the sake of 
 appearances, but I couldn't be comforta- 
 ble working day after day tricked out 
 like a clown or scare-crow. Mr. Arthur 
 C. Miller suggests the wearing of canvas 
 shoes that lace well up around the ankle, 
 such as are worn by tennis and base 
 ball players and cyclists. Then he would 
 have the trousers come just below the 
 knee, with canvas leggings to cover up 
 the lower part of the legs. His ideal 
 coat is a close fitting jacket of lightweight 
 that buttons up to the throat. The hat 
 that approaches the nearest to perfection 
 in his opinion is the helmet. It has vis- 
 ors front and back and a ventilator all 
 around between the rim and the inner 
 band. It is light and cool and protects 
 both the eyes and the back of the head 
 and neck from the sun. Such suits as 
 those described by Mr, Miller can be had 
 
86 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CUI.TURE. 
 
 in white or colored "duck," and are 
 light, cheap, washable and serviceable, 
 and, complete, or in part, are worn by 
 many cyclists and others. 
 
 When the grass is wet, / wear rubbers 
 over the light calf boots. In the heat of 
 the working season I wear linen trousers, 
 a white cotton shirt and a straw hat. I 
 have seen the wearing of light woolen 
 clothing recommended, but have never 
 given it a trial. Ernest Root mentions 
 the comfort he has derived from the wear- 
 ing of light under clothing, part woolen. 
 But he does not perspire freely, and this 
 under clothing retains the perspiration, 
 keeping the skin moist. With me it is 
 the reverse. I perspire so freely that the 
 clothing is soon "soaked through and 
 through," and frequent changes are nec- 
 essary. Perhaps each will be obliged to 
 decide this matterby personal experience. 
 
 The straw hat that I wear is a good 
 one, made by sewing together narrow 
 braids of iine straw. Such a hat costs 
 about jSi.oo. I buy a new one each year 
 for "best," and then take the last year's 
 one for every day wear in the apiary. 
 
 I never wished a veil attached to the 
 edge of the hat rim. It is only part of the 
 time that a veil is needed, and when it 
 isn't needed I wish it out of the way. I 
 prefer a veil with a string run into a hem 
 around the top then the upper edge can 
 be puckered up until it will just slip 
 down nicely over the hat crown. 
 
 Glomes I have never worn, and doubt 
 if I could be led to believe them a com- 
 fort. 
 
 I know of no comfort in the apiary 
 greater than a smooth surface (of earth) 
 thickly covered with grass. A lawn 
 mower can scarcely be called a comfort, 
 it is a necessity. Sprinkle salt around 
 the hives to kill the grass a distance of 
 six inches from each hive, then the lawn 
 mower can cut all the grass that grows. 
 About the first thing needed upon begin- 
 ning work in the apiary is a smoker; and 
 oh how much comfort or discomfort can 
 come through this little implement. If 
 any of my readers have suffered from 
 
 smokers that spill fire, that become stop- 
 ped up with soot, that go out, or from 
 fuel that will not burn, let them get a 
 Bingham, the size called "Doctor," get a 
 barrel of planer shavings from dry pine 
 for fuel, and take comfort. If there is 
 any trouble in lighting the shavings, use 
 a little kerosene from a spring-bottom 
 oiler, as already mentioned. Keep 
 matches in a safe place near where the 
 smoker is to be lighted. Never be pes- 
 tered by having to run off some where 
 after a match. Above all don't keep the 
 smoker fuel and matches in the honey 
 house; the danger from fire is too great. 
 Rig up a box, or barrel, or old bee hive, 
 with a rain proof cover, for the keeping 
 of fuel and matches, and have it located 
 some distance from the honey house. I 
 kept the planer shavings in an old wash 
 boiler, and had it "burn out" once. As 
 it was out of doors, no harm was done. 
 Keep the cap of the "Doctor" filled with 
 green weeds or grass and there is no dan- 
 ger of blowing sparks into the hives. 
 
 Have a wheel barrow or cart for carry- 
 ing cases, hives of honey and other heavy 
 articles. With such hives as I use, the 
 cover can be turned up on edge and 
 made to answer the purpose of a seat; 
 where such is not the case, a seat of some 
 kind ought to be provided. Dr. C. C. 
 Miller uses a light box 17 x I2x 9 inches 
 in size. This gives a chance for having 
 a seat with any one of these heights. It 
 should be made strong enough not to 
 rack and have hand holes in the sides for 
 carrying it by. A hammock in the 
 shadeof a tree, or in the work shop, is a 
 great comfort. Ten minutes rest in a 
 reclining position is of as much value as 
 fifteen in a sitting or standing posture. 
 
 In the Review for June, 1890, "Ram- 
 bler" said: "For brushing bees from 
 combs, instead of using the little, inef- 
 ficient brushes sold by dealers we use a 
 large, Mexican fiber duster. A screw eve 
 is inserted in the end of the handle, a 
 long, strong cord inserted and tied and 
 the loop thrown over the shoulders, when 
 the brush is always at the side ready for use. 
 
ADVANCBD BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 87 
 
 Another very convenient tool for many 
 uses in the apiary is a light, thin-bladed 
 screw-driver. This should have a large 
 bright ribbon tied to it, for, brother bee- 
 keepers, you know how such small tools 
 will disappear in the yard. The bright 
 colored ribbon hangs out a signal, "Here 
 I am, grasp me." 
 
 An oil stove is another convenience not 
 to be overlooked. A single wick burner 
 will answer, perhaDs, but a double wick 
 is better. Water can be heated, wax 
 melted, starch made and kept warm. 
 
 sugar syrup made if necessary and sever- 
 al other things done. 
 
 If swarming is allowed, and queens 
 are undipped, there should be queen- 
 traps, self-hivers, or a Whitman fountain 
 pump with a barrel of water and plenty 
 of pails. 
 
 I/et each bee-keeper look about his 
 apiary and see if he is not doing some of 
 his work in an awkward manner, that 
 might be avoided by the providing of a 
 few comforts and conveniences. 
 
 ^»^>^y^S^T«^A^:^<^ 
 
 Mistakes in Bee-Keeping. 
 
 ' T IS pleasant to tell of success. Mis- 
 takes are mentioned with reluc- 
 tance. Yet, these may be of equal 
 ■'-^ value for imparting information. 
 Mr. J. M. Smith of Wisconsin is noted as 
 a horticulturist. The crops of berries 
 and cabbages that he raises are something 
 wonderful. His contributions to the 
 press are valuable; but I never read one 
 containing more information than the 
 one in which he recounted the mistakes 
 of his horticultural life. I believe that 
 space can be proiitably occupied in men- 
 tioning a few things that experienced 
 bee-keepers look upon as mistakes in bee- 
 keeping. 
 
 The man who has decided that he will 
 choose bee-keeping as his profession, 
 makes a mistake when he gets a few col- 
 onies and attempts to learn the business 
 all by himself. Both time and money 
 would be saved by passing at least one 
 season in the employ of a successful bee- 
 keeper. 
 
 If a man must start with a few colo- 
 nies and learn the business by himself, 
 let him avoid the mistake of attempting 
 
 to follow several leaders or systems. 
 Much confusion and annoyance will be 
 saved if he adopts the teachings, methods 
 and appliances of some one successful 
 bee-keeper. He may make the mistake 
 of not choosing the best system, but bet- 
 ter this than a mixture of several systems. 
 
 A beginner is quite likely to fall into 
 the error of increasing his colonies too 
 rapidly. There is probably no mistake 
 so disastrous as this on account of its 
 frequency and results. To the beginner 
 this is very tempting ground. If bee- 
 keeping must be learned by experience 
 and reading (without the serving of an 
 apprenticeship) the beginning should be 
 small, and practical knowledge and skill 
 should keep pace with the increase of 
 colonies. 
 
 A mistake that has been made by many 
 is in looking upon bee-keeping as a sort 
 of royal road to wealth, or at least a good 
 living, with but little labor, and, some 
 believe, little brains, after they have once 
 "caught on" to a few secrets. (?) To 
 choose any business simply because it is 
 profitable is the height of folly, A bust- 
 
88 
 
 ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 
 
 ness that is unusually profitable does not 
 long remain such. It soon becomes over- 
 crowded and loses its bonanza character. 
 A man should choose a business because 
 he and his surroundings are best adapted 
 to the pursuit. 
 
 Many fall into the error of judging en- 
 tirely by results, regardless of causes. 
 As that excellent bee-keeper, R. L. Tay- 
 lor, has said, "The greatest actual results 
 do not prove the method of management 
 by which they were produced to be the 
 best. Time, and labor, and thought, and 
 care, and material, and capital, are all 
 money, so the greatest results numerical- 
 ly may be obtained at a loss, while the 
 least apparent results may yield a profit. ' ' 
 
 In much this same manner do many 
 bee-keepers make the mistake of comput- 
 ing their income at so many pounds per 
 colony, and at so much per pound. The 
 greatest yield per colony might not be so 
 profitable as a less yield per colony from 
 more colonies, or even a lessened yield 
 from the same number of colonies. If a 
 great yield per colony is the result of a 
 great deal of work, it may be that the 
 work was done at a loss. Bee-keeping 
 should be viewed in a broader light. It 
 may sometimes be profitable to put a 
 great deal of work on each colony, but 
 each bee-keeper should ask himself, how, 
 all things considered, can I make the 
 most profit ? That is the question, and 
 all other propositions not relating direct- 
 ly thereto are mistakes. 
 
 And this leads to the mention of 
 another mistake, the keeping of too few 
 bees. Instead of keeping only a few 
 swarms and striving to secure the largest 
 yields per colony, it is often more profit- 
 able to keep more bees — enough to gather 
 all the honey produced in a given area, 
 and then when said area is overstocked, 
 it is probably a mistake not to start out- 
 apiaries. There is much to be gained in 
 having as few things to do as possible, 
 and as much of them as can be managed. 
 The proportional cost of doing business 
 is greatly lessened by increasing the vol- 
 ume of business. 
 
 Another mistake is that of choosing 
 hives, implements and methods that are 
 complicated and require much time for 
 their manipulation. A most common 
 error in this line is in trying to adapt 
 hives to bees, to such an extent as to al- 
 most entirely ignore the adaptability of 
 the hive to the bee-keeper. I remember 
 once hearing a bee-keeper arguing for a 
 hive that it was "'so handy for the bees." 
 "Why," said he, "if you were buildinga 
 house, would you have it so arranged 
 that your wife would be obliged to go up 
 and down stairs between the kitchen and 
 the pantry?" It must be remembered 
 that we build hives for our bees and 
 houses for our wives with altogether dif- 
 ferent ends in view. We don't keep 
 bees nor arrange their hives with a view 
 to saving them labor, but that we may 
 get the most honey with the least labor 
 to ourselves. ■ Drone-traps, queen- traps, 
 self-hivers, queen-excluders, smokers 
 and many other contrivances are probably 
 not considered "handy" by the bees, but 
 their use is an advantage to us. 
 
 It is in a line with this method of rea- 
 soning that causes some bee-keepers to 
 make the mistake of condemning any 
 practice that is not "according to na- 
 ture. ' ' The whole system of modern bee 
 culture is a transgression of nature's laws, 
 so-called. In some things it is advisable 
 to allow nature to have her own way, in 
 others it is not, and we have the best suc- 
 cess when we have learned just where we 
 can advantageously, to a certain extent, 
 cross nature's methods with those of 
 man's intelligence. 
 
 Mistakes have been made, and erron- 
 eous conclusions arrived at, by experi- 
 menting upon too small a scale. There 
 are some kinds of experiments which will 
 demonstrate truths just as well upon a 
 small as upon a large scale, while there 
 are others requiring experiments upon a 
 large scale and a repetition of experiments 
 before definite conclusions can be arrived 
 at. 
 
 Many beginners make the mistake of 
 thinking they can improve some of the 
 
ADVANCED BBE-CULTURE. 
 
 89 
 
 standard hives or implements, and that 
 before they have fairly learned the busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Others make the mistake of adopting 
 new hives, implements, methods or vari- 
 eties of bees upon too large a scale be- 
 fore they are certain that the change will 
 be desirable. When a new thing with 
 one advantage is held up before our eyes, 
 we are too much given to forgetting the 
 man)' advantages possessed by the article 
 that we are asked to lay aside for the new 
 comer. As a rule, the rank and file can. 
 afford to wait until at least good reports 
 are given in regard to a novelty. Then 
 it will be in order to experiment upon no 
 larger scale than that upon which failure 
 can be met and borne. 
 
 Speaking of the "rank and file," wait- 
 ing for the leaders or others to try novel- 
 ities, reminds me that it is a mistake to 
 have undue confidence in the leaders in 
 
 bee-culture. It is possible that they may 
 be in error, or some unknown circum- 
 stances may cause different results at 
 different times in other localities. It is 
 a mistake to pin one's faith blindly to 
 another. Do your own thinking, be 
 original, try things for yourself until you 
 are sure you are right, then go ahead. 
 
 One expensive mistake, yet one that is 
 easily avoided, is made year after year by 
 many bee-keepers, and that is in not 
 securing hives, sections, foundation and 
 other supplies in season. They intend to 
 buy them soon enough, but wait until the 
 last moment. So many others do the 
 same thing that dealers and manufactur- 
 ers are over-run with orders, and expen- 
 sive and vexatious delays occur. A de- 
 lay of only a few days at just the right 
 time sometimes means the loss of a crop 
 of honey. 
 
Index to Chapters. 
 
 Introduction 4 
 
 Care of Bees in Winter 5 
 
 Securing Workers for the Harvest 8 
 
 Bee Hives and their Characteristics ii 
 
 Honey Boards 15 
 
 Sections and Their Adjustment on the Hives i? 
 
 Varieties of Bees i9 
 
 Introducing Queens 21 
 
 Planting for Honey ." 25 
 
 Specialty Versus Mixed Bee-Keeping 27 
 
 The Arrangement of Hives and Buildings 29 
 
 Separators 31 
 
 Increase, its Management and Control 33 
 
 Shade for Bees 34 
 
 Contraction of the Brood IS est 37 
 
 Hiving Bees 39 
 
 Foul Brood 43 
 
 The Use and Abuse of Comb Foundation 46 
 
 Queen Rearing 49 
 
 How to Produce Good Extracted Honey 54 
 
 "Feeding Back" 56 
 
 From the Hive to the Honey Market 61 
 
 Marketing of Honey 65 
 
 Migratory Bee-Keeping 68 
 
 Out- Apiaries 70 
 
 Apiarian Exhibits at Fairs 72 
 
 Relation of Food to the Wintering of Bees 75 
 
 Out-Door Wintering 77 
 
 Ventilation of Bee Cellars 79 
 
 Relation of Moisture to the Wintering of Bees 80 
 
 Influence of Temperature in Wintering Bees 82 
 
 Comforts and Conveniences in the Apiary 85 
 
 Mistakes in Bee-Keeping 87 
 
VICTOR'S 
 
 Strain of Italians Awarded the i^iploma as Being 
 the Best Bees at the Pan American 
 
 See what Mr. Orel L. Hershiser, Supt. of the Apiariau Dept. says of them. 
 
 Buffalo, N. Y. August 30th, 1901. 
 
 My dear Victor: — Queen and nucleus arrived safely yesterday; made entrance to 
 nucleus and allowed them to fly yesterday P. M. Transferred them to Dovetailed hive 
 thistaoming without smoke, und handled them, patting them on the back, and I 
 never saw such quiet and docile bees. If their working qualities are as superior as 
 their handling, I am prepared to say. jvoa Aaz^^ the best bees I ever met; which would 
 inclu le some 25 or 30 different breeders and all the well known races. 
 
 Yours truly, OREL Iv. HERSHISER. 
 
 Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, President of the National Bee-Keepers' Association, and 
 judge of the bee-exhibit at the Pan American, says. 
 
 Friend Victor: — Yours of the 30th ult came duly to hand. Yes; your bees were 
 awarded a diploma, which was the highest award made to an individual exhibitor. 
 I don't know as I can make any particular statement in regard to your bees, except 
 that they pleased me the best of any that were there. 
 
 As ever yours, W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 
 
 I am still booking orders for queens of this superior strain, at catalogue prices, 
 for spring delivery. First come, first served. Send for price lists. 
 
 W. 0. Victor, [gLj Wharton, Texas 
 
 THE HEDDON HIVE 
 
 Is pre-eminently the hive 
 for the specialist. The rea- 
 sons why are given most 
 clearly in the chapter on 
 hives in this book. Turn 
 back and read it. This hive 
 is patented, but we have 
 such arrangements with Mr. 
 Heddon that we can supply 
 these hives, and the right to 
 use them goes with the hives. 
 Send for our illustrated 
 catalog, and a sample copy of 
 the Progressive Bee-Keeper. 
 
 Leaby f\i%' So. 
 
 Higgiosville, r\o. 
 
 wmmmmmmmmmmfmmmm 
 
LJIl 
 
 The Bee - Keepers' review is a 36-page monthly, at jSt.oo a year, edited and 
 published by the author of this book. As indicated by its name, one of its dis- 
 tinctive features is that of reviewing current, apicultural literature. Errors and 
 fallacious ideas are faithfully but courteously and kindly pointed out, while nothing 
 valuable is allowed to pass unnoticed. But few articles are copied entire, but the 
 ideas are extracted, given in the fewest words possible, and commented upon when 
 thought advisable. 
 
 Instead of devoting space to "hints to beginners," the Review turns its atten- 
 tion to the unsolved problems of advanced bee culture. 
 
 While valuable truths are eagerly welcomed from any and ev-ery source, the 
 utmost pains are taken to secure, as correspondents, successful apiarists who are able 
 to write, from experience, such articles as help the practical bee-keeper. Send 
 ten cents for three late but different issues, and the ten cents may apply on any sub- 
 scjiption sent in during the year. A coupon will be sent entitling the holder to the 
 Review one year for only 90 cents. 
 
 W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Flint, Mich. 
 
 The Danzenbaker 
 HIVE 
 
 Is the best comb Honey hive 
 on the market, and may be 
 obtained of the A. I. Root Co., 
 Medina, Ohio, at any of their 
 branch houses, and of many 
 local and jobbing agencies. 
 For particulars about the hive, 
 and its management for comb 
 honey, send to the A. I. Root 
 Co. for a 75-page pamphlet 
 entitled "Facts About Bees" 
 It is sent free. 
 
 HONEY 
 
 QUEEiSlS 
 
 law's Imported Golden Queens, I,aw's 
 I,ong-Tongaed leather Colored Queens, 
 and law's Moly land Queens. 
 
 Law's Queens are the standard bred 
 queens of America. The largest honey 
 producers use them and praise them. 
 Law's Queens go everywhere. He can 
 furnish you a queen any month in the 
 year. Five apiaries. Queens bred in 
 their purity. Single queen, |i.oo; one 
 dozen jSio.oo. Fine breeders, the very 
 best, I3.00 each. Send for price list. 
 Address 
 
 W. H. LAWS, 
 Becville, Tex- 
 

 to(sko 
 
 Every bee-keeper who has had experience 
 with several strains of bees knows that some are 
 far superior to others— that there is scrub stock 
 among bees, just as there are scrub horses, cat- 
 tle, sheep and poultry. 
 
 I^et me give my own experience: Years ago, 
 while living at Rogersville, I mad^ a specialty of 
 rearing queens for sale. Before engaging in 
 this work, I bought queens, and Italianized, not 
 only my own bees, but all within three miles of 
 my apiary. In buying those queens I think I 
 patronized nearly every breeder in the United 
 States; and, even in those years of inexperience, 
 I was not long in noting the great difference in 
 the different strains of bees. The queens from 
 one particular breeder produced bees that de- 
 lighted me greatly. They were just plain, dark, 
 three-banded ItaliantJ, but, as workers, I have 
 never seen them equaled. They seemed po.sses- 
 sed of a steady, quiet determination that enabled 
 them to lay up surplus ahead of the others. 
 Easier bees to handle I have never seen. Their 
 honey was capped with a snowy whiteness 
 rivaling that of the blacks. In addition, they 
 were hardy. If any bees came through the win- 
 ter, it was colonies of this strain. They came as 
 near being ideal bees as any I have ever po.sses- 
 sed. All this was more than twenty years ago; 
 but, several times since, I have bought queens 
 of this breeder, and I always found this strain 
 of bees possessed of those same good qualities — 
 industry, gentleness, hardiness and a disposition 
 to cap thtir honey white: I frequently corres- 
 ponded with this breeder, and with those who 
 had bought queens of him, and, finally, T became 
 thoroughly convinced that he had a strain of 
 bees far superior to the general run of stock. 
 Whether this superiority results from length of 
 tongue, about which there has been so much 
 talk the past year, I do not know, but I do know 
 that no bees have been found with greater 
 tongue-length. 
 
 This breeder had always advertised in a quiet, 
 unassuming sort of way, nothing in prop-^rtion 
 to what the quality of his stock would have war- 
 ranted, when, two years ago, I decided that I 
 could help him, and benefit my readers, at a 
 profit to myself, by advertising these bees in a 
 manner befittingly energetic. I put the price at 
 
 $1.50, but the conditions were such that it was 
 impossible for any loss to fall upon a purchaser. 
 The queens sent out were young queens just be- 
 ginning to lay, but I guaranteed safe arrival, 
 safe introduction, purity of mating, and satis- 
 faction to the extent that, any time within two 
 years, a purchaser could return the queen for 
 any cause whatever, if he wag not satisfied with 
 her, and his money would be refunded, and 50 
 cents additional sent to pay him for his trouble. 
 I have sold several hundred queens, sending 
 them to all parts of the United States, and I have 
 been asked to return the money in just one 
 INSTANCE. I don't mean by this that no other 
 compliint has been made, tor there have been 
 others, but in the other cases purchasers have 
 very kindly allowed me to send other queens 
 in place of those that did not prove satisfactory. 
 Even with the best of stock and management 
 there ^piU occasionally be a poor quetn. Possi- 
 bly long journeys by mail have some bearing 
 upon this part of the question. I^osses in ship- 
 ment are not serious; losses in introduction are 
 not serious, unless it is during the dearth be- 
 tween the summer and fall honey-fl.ows; mis 
 mated queens are not worth considering, they 
 don't exceed one percent ; but all of these losses 
 have cheerfully been made good, and will con- 
 tinue 10 be made good in the future. 
 
 As to testimonials, regarding theiT- superior- 
 ity, I could fill page after page with them. I 
 have occasionally published a few, but what is 
 the use ? Any one can try this strain without 
 taking a particle of risk. 
 
 From the very first, the demand has been 
 greater than the supply. The opening of the 
 season usually finds me with at least 200 orders 
 on hand. Any one wishing to try one of these 
 queens, ought to order it some little time in 
 advance, as orders are booked and filled in rota- 
 tion. I am still offering them at the same price 
 and under the same conditions as before viz., 
 Si. 50 for a queen alone, fully guaran eed as 
 above .stated, or a queen and the Revi^w for one 
 year for only $2.00. Thisofferis open to either 
 old or new subscribers. If you wish to try 
 one of these queens, better send in your order, 
 together with a subscription to the Review — 
 remember, $2.00 pays for both. 
 
 W. Z. Hutchinson, Flint, Michigan. 
 
taSCaae Bee Hive Co. 
 
 Does experience count in nianufacluring? We think it does. 
 We offer as evidence of our ability to serve ymi, the fac simile of 
 the medal avparded to our manager by the State of Minnesota. He 
 has been act- ^-^^^^^^S^^ ^"^^■'3' engaged 
 inthemanu- x^CSS^^v f^'^'ure and 
 sale of Bee- y^^^^^pjRlBffT^^^^ l^ives and 
 Supplies for /^^^f^^^^'^® ^^ «\ '^ ^e-s; has 
 visited many // '§§' ^ ■%/^^\\ of the largest 
 factories in ///(^ mW-^^iit^€:in7W\^^\\ theworldjhas 
 crossed the ///^ Jffi -, ^ Sii ^\\ continent 
 twice, exam- I ©'^E ' "/^ t>oi^ — — ■«« __ iningfai tjries 
 and equip- Ul^-^j^ oi%^ J>?SW « ©/// "'<='"s, inter- 
 viewing deal- W^.'^ffis ini^r ^;// ers and consu- 
 mers of bee V^i'^m. ^'^'^'^ J^^^'/J gooi^silias 
 sold hives, \VV^i^^^/^^-<^v^^^^5^&// sections and 
 supplies b y ^^^ """^"SdiM^^S''^ ^^^ *^^ carload to 
 such dealers ^^^^2b-_ ^^^!>^^ ^^ L,eahy Mfg. 
 Co., Kretch- ^^^^SSSSS^?^ merMfg. Co., 
 Arkansas Valley Eee-Keepers in Coiorado, to CHlifurnia and Nevada 
 dealers, and many others; also many small dealers and consumers. 
 Methods of manufacture are improving; we are getting to the front. 
 We want your order, no matter how small. 
 
 CAR LOAD BUYERS 
 
 of Bee Hives, and all kinds of Bee Supplies, as well as consumers, 
 will find it to their interest to let us know their needs. We sell to the 
 jobbing trade all over the world. We have financial interests and 
 business contracts with two of the largest factories in the United 
 States, as well as being sole proprietors of a small plant of our own. 
 One of our factories is cutting 12,000,000 of lumber this year. We 
 want your busines.s. Address, for a catalogue, 
 
 CASCADE BEE HIVE CO. 
 
 River Falls, Wis. 
 

 ?^*8^-^5^if-'^%r^ 
 
 4^ 
 
 '^n 
 
 ^>rr<i 
 
 Q^TTTlTTi 
 
 UUil 
 
 ^/q: 
 
 Daughters of selected, imported Ital- 
 ians, selected long-tongued (Moore's) 
 and selected straight, five-banded 
 Queens. Bred three miles apart, and 
 mated to select drones. No bees own- 
 ed within two and one-half miles; none 
 impure within three miles, and very 
 few within five miles. No bee disease in this part 
 of the country. 
 
 All queen cells are built in strong, full colonies, 
 by the most approved modern methods. Safe ar- 
 rival guaranteed on all queens. 
 
 Untested queens, before July, 75 cts each; six for 
 $4.00; twelve for $7.50. After July ist, single 
 qiieen, 60 cts; six for $3.25; twelve for $6.00. 
 
 Tested queens, before July, $1.50 each; six for 
 $8.00; twelve for $15.00. After July ist, single 
 queen for $1.25; six for $6.00. 
 
 Discounts on large orders. Contracts with deal- 
 ers a specialty. 
 
 3. ^. Vavis 
 
 Spring f)tU, Ccnn. 
 
 ife 
 
 
The Rauchfuss Combined Section-Press 
 And Foundation-Fastener 
 
 Price, complete with Lamp, 
 $5.00. 
 
 Has the following advantages: 
 
 1. Sections are handled but once in going 
 from the crate to the snper. 
 
 2. Its work is more accurate and rapitl than 
 that of any other machine on the market. 
 
 3. Because of its great capacity, sections need 
 not be put up until wanted. 
 
 4 An inexpe ienced person or a child can do 
 satisfactory work, 
 
 5 The woik is done in a sitting: position. 
 
 6. Any temperature at which foundation can 
 be handled is suitable for operalinjr, and a mod- 
 erate temperature is tven better than a high one, 
 for it is easier to handle foundiition with some 
 backbone to it. 
 
 7. It takes an_y width of the 45^x45^ inch sec- 
 tions. An adjustable guide-block brings the 
 f undalion exaci ly to t e center. 
 
 8. It ran be fastened to any bench or table. 
 5 heing of metal it resists moisture and with 
 
 fair usage will lasi a liietime. 
 
 10. It takes starters, fu 1 sheets, or both; or 
 any inierniediale size of sheets 
 
 II It saves foundation by melting only the 
 lea t possible amount fn)ni the edge. 
 
 12. The wax nT-lted trwin the edge of the foun- 
 dation is highly heattd and thoroughly grips the 
 fibers of the wot>d. so that rather than separate 
 from the sectiors the foundation itself will tear. 
 
 13. So small an . m< unt of wax is melted that 
 it cools instantly and cau.ses no delay. 
 
 14. For the same season the louiidation when 
 fastened appears to be only resting on the wood, 
 giving the finished honey a superior appearance 
 when cut from the sectit n. 
 
 These advantages enables it to pay for itself in 
 one season, even in a small apiary. 
 
 See what some of the men say who have used 
 the machine: — 
 
 IvONGMONT, Colo , Jan. 29. igo2. 
 
 In putting together sections I use a Kauchfuss. 
 combined machine. If there is any better I have 
 not seen it The sectioi s go right'from the crate 
 to the super with one operation. My wife i- the 
 champion a hisiartofthe business; her aver- 
 age day's work, of eight hours, being too supers. 
 M. A. Gill. 
 
 [Mr. Gill is one of Colorado's foremost bee-keepers, managing about 700 colonies ] 
 
 Rauchfus Bros. I^'ttleton, Colo. 
 
 I have used your Combined Section Pre.ss and Foundation Fastener for six 3'ears and would 
 not sell the same for $25 if I could not get another out , as it is in my estimation the only per- 
 fect machine of this kind on the market, and will gladly recommend it to any bee-keeper. 
 
 LKWIS BROCK. 
 [Mr. Brock keeps 260 colonies in three apiaries and has two of our machine^.] 
 
 Rauchfuss Bros., 3522 Alcott St., Denver, Colo. 
 
 1 have used your c mbined niach^'ne for making sections and putting iti foundation. After us- 
 ing manv other devices for doing the .^ame work, Iwishtosa that your machine §ives us the 
 best satisfaction for rapid and reliable work. 
 
 Yours very truly 
 
 W. I.,. PORTER. 
 [Mr. Porter is one of the most extensive bee-keepers in the State — he runs 600 colonies.] 
 This machine is manufactured and for sale by 
 
 FRANK RAUCHFUSS, 'j^^^uetst Denver, Col 
 
 It can also be obtained of the following dealers:— 
 
 G. B. I^ewisCo., Watertown, Wis. 
 
 W. T. Falconer Mfg. * o , Jamestown, N. Y. 
 Chas. Dadant &Son. Hamilton, 111. 
 Rob't Halley, Montiose, Colo. 
 
 Delta Fniit & Produce Co., Delta, Colo. 
 
 Barteldes & Co., 1521 15th St., Denver, Colo. 
 I^. A. Watfcins Mdse. Co., Denver, Colo. 
 
 The Colorado Plouey Producers Ass'n Denver, Colo. 
 
 Patented Feb. 4, 1S96. 
 
MICHIGAN 
 
 Headquarters for G. B. Lewis Co's. Bee-Keepers' 
 Supplies. Dadant's Foundation. 
 
 We have the largest stock of supplies in the Stale, and can ship on one day's notice. Send for 
 our 48 - page, illustrated catalogue, and give us a trial order. 5-02-tf 
 
 L. C. WOODMAN, Grand Rapids, Mich. 
 
 We want 
 
 to sell you bee-keepers' supplies, 
 to give you entire satisfaction. 
 
 For these reasons we deal in RooVs Goods, both wholesale and retail. 
 Our specialties — Sives, Sections and Comb Foundation. Cash paid for beeswax, 
 
 i-oi-tf M. H. HUNT & SON, Bell Branch, Mich. 
 
 Roofs Bee Supplies 
 
 In Central Michigan. Cheapest place to buy, and the best 
 shipping point in the State. Bees for sale. Send for list. 
 
 W. D. SOPMR, Jackson, Mich. F. R. D. No. 3. 
 
 If You Want 
 Root's Goods 
 
 we have them at Root's 
 prices. A so A B C of Bee 
 Culture— one of the best 
 books printed on bees. 
 Catalogue free. Address 
 D. Coolcy & 5onr 
 
 QUEENS. 
 
 I am a practical breeder 
 of Italian Queens. I 
 make a specialty of rear- 
 ing three and five-banded 
 queens from the best 
 strain in this country. 
 Untested queens, 75c 
 each; tested, |i.oo each. Dealers sup- 
 plied at wholesale prices. This is a 
 Money Order office so remit by post office 
 Money Order. 
 
 Respectfully yours, for queens 
 DANIEL WURTH, Caryville, Tex. 
 
 Red Clover 
 
 Long Tongued Queens 
 
 We are breeding the long-tongued, red 
 clover, honey queens. This strain of 
 bees is ahead of all others as honey 
 gatherers and comb builders. They just 
 roll in the honey while other bees are try- 
 ing to rob. Give our queens a trial. 
 Untested, in May, June and July, 75c; 
 sixfor|4.25; twelve for ^8.00. Tested, 
 J;[.25; select tested, I1.50. Three-frame 
 nucleus and untested queen, for J52.75. 
 Order from this advertisment. 
 
 Ppzstoti 
 
 Stot^e 8t Bee Co. 
 
 Dority, W. Va. 
 
^^^m^amu^ws'&^MWs^^y^M^^B^ 
 
 [i^ We make millions of them yearly ; workman- 
 
 0^ ship, smoothness and finish can't be better. The 
 
 ffj basswood grows right here. If you want some 
 
 ^ good Shipping Cases, you can get them of us. 
 
 ftO A full line of Bee Supplies on hand. 
 
 1^ Write for illustrated catalog and price list, free. 
 
 I Marshfield 
 
 ^ Mfo Co Marshfield, g] 
 
 §5 lUl^. V^U. Wisconsin. W 
 
 ^ i 
 
 Best Hopey 
 
 Queens on Record 
 
 Are those superior Atchley queens reared by 
 Will Alchley. They are the best that money 
 and a life time experience can produce. A trial 
 order will convince >ou. Untested queens $i.oo 
 each in Jan , Feb., March, Nov and Dec; all 
 other months 75 cents each; $4.25 tor six; $8.00 
 for one dozen. Tested queens from $1.50 to I3.00 
 according to quality. Breeders from $3.00 to 
 S5.00 each. I breed the Holylands, Albinos, three- 
 bande 1 imported Italians, five-banded or Gold- 
 ens, Cyprians and Carniolans. All bred from 
 imported stock in separate yards from 5 to 30 
 miles apart. The prices given are for queens 
 from any of these stocks. I guarantee perfecr 
 satisfaction and safe arrival to y. ur office I can 
 supply the celebrated Southwest Texas honey 
 at ID cents per pound for nice, choice, bulk, comb 
 honey in 60 lb tins, two in a case. 
 
 Will Atchley 
 
 Sox 79 Seeville Tex. 
 
 Paicific Co2ist 
 Queco Bees. 
 
 since I commenced producing honey, 
 I have frequently sent Eabt, South and to 
 Italy for queens. Some were received in 
 good condition, but many died in the 
 mail, or amounted to little after introduc- 
 tion. This led me to rearing queens for 
 the Pacific Coast trade last year; so that 
 the long, risky trip would not be neces- 
 sary. That my efforts have been appreci- 
 ated is indicated by the fact that all the 
 orders "in sight," could not be filled un- 
 til in May. With large increase of nuclei, 
 I hope to take care of my share of the 
 trade promptly in the future, and shall 
 send circular and price list on application. 
 
 UX. A. H. Gillstttap 
 
 Grayson, Cal. 
 
'wywyvwvvvvwywwywyvwyvywvv^ 
 
 i,8oo Worth 
 
 Of new machinery, designed expressly for use in making bee-keepers' 
 supplies, has just been placed in our factory. My son has taken 
 charge of the planing mill department, and this leaves me free to de- 
 vote my whole time to the supply business. Not only will this work 
 be pushed, and orders filled promptly, but the workmanship will be 
 as perfect as it is possible to make it. 
 
 We are located in the pine and basswood region, and own a saw 
 mill and planing mill of our own. We make our own foundation. 
 All things considered, we are in position to furnish the very best of 
 goods at the lowest possible prices. Send for price list. 
 
 Wm. Bamber, Mt. Pleasant, Mich. 
 
 \mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm^ 
 
 The tmerican Bee Journal. 
 
 In order to become a prrgressive apiarist, and 
 at the same tim^e realize the most money from 
 your b'ses, you cannot afford to be without a good 
 bee-paper. The American Bee Journal, es- 
 tablished in i86i, is a i6-page Weekly, well il- 
 lustrated, and fully up-to-date in every thing per- 
 taining to bee-culture. 
 
 ITS DEPARTMENTS. 
 
 Contributed j4i* tides.— Discussions of im- 
 portant topics and bee-keeping experiences — by 
 experts. 
 
 Convention JProceedingsi—J-ast what this 
 implies. 
 
 Questions and Answers.— In charge of 
 Dr. C. C. Miller, a bee-keeper of 40 years experi- 
 ence, who answers all questions. Invaluable 
 to beginners in bee-keeping. 
 
 Editorial Comments.— Just what this indi- 
 cates. 
 
 The Weekly Budget.— Being mainly per- 
 sonal items and miscellaneous notes. 
 
 Beedom Boiled J>owu.— Cream of bee-liter- 
 ature. 
 
 The Afterthought.— T'hxs is in charge of 
 Mr. E. E. Hasty ,who reviews what has appeared 
 in recent numbers of the American Bee-Jour- 
 nal, pointing out any errors and commending 
 the good things. 
 
 General Jtetns.— Being short experiences 
 and reports of the honey-crop, condition of bees, 
 etc. Price of the Bee Journal, one year, $1.00. 
 A sample copy free on application. 
 
 G. W. YORK & CO. Chicago, III., 144 Erie St. 
 
 fl®="We are headquarters for Root's Bee-Keei)- 
 ers' Supplies. Catalog free. 
 
 Bcc-Kccpcrs' 
 
 5upplics 
 
 And all the latest hives and 
 appliances for the progressive 
 bee-keeper. Improved Italian 
 
 Bees and Quz^tis. 
 
 Having had large experi- 
 ence am able to give advice to 
 beginners free. Send for Il- 
 lustrated Catalogue. 
 
 J. H- fl^- Cook, 
 
 62 Cortland 5t., 
 New YorK. 
 
Wg are M Largest Maiinfacturers of Bee-Keepers' 
 
 in tlie NortliwEst. 
 
 Send for catalog. 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 We liaye tlie Best fioofls, Lowest Prices, and Best Stiipping Facilities. 
 
 Our Shallow Dove. Hives with deep super for sections 4x5 
 or 3 5^ X 5 is the best for raising comb honey. We manufac- 
 ture the best swarm catcher, up to the present time, that is 
 put on the market. Our Improved Daisy Foundation Fastener 
 is in the lead of all others. If you want your bees to winter 
 well, get our Winter Cases, they will winter your bees for a 
 century. You must remember that we manufacture the best 
 Bee-Keepers' supplies, and we guarantee everything to be just 
 as represented. 
 
 NO FISH BONE 
 
 m 
 
 '4m 
 m 
 % 
 
 P 
 
 i 
 If 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 
 Is apparent in comb honey when the Van Deusen, 
 flat-bottom foundation is used. This style of foun- 
 dation allows the making of a more uniform article, 
 having a very thin base, with the surplus wax in 
 the side-walls, where it can be utilized by the bees, 
 and the result is a comb that can scarcely be dis- 
 tinguished from that built wholly by the bees. 
 Being so thin, one pound will fill a large number 
 of sections. All the Xrouble of wiring brood 
 frames can be avoided by using the Van Deusen 
 wired. Send for circular, price list, and samples 
 of foundation. 
 
 J. Van Deujen, Sprout BrooK, ti. Y- 
 
 m 
 
 % 
 
 t 
 » 
 
 I 
 
 % 
 
 m 
 m 
 
 ■^JK • \ " \. ■ N •: \ - \ \ \ \ - \ \ : \ ; \ \ \ ' \ .\ ■ \ \ \ ' \ :-«^ 
 
 m 
 
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 l,,,v,,|,iiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiii.jiiiiiiii 
 
 ■iiiiiiiiiiiiii|ii{iliuiiiiii!iiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiii|Mnii!iiiiiiiiiiii|iiiiiii[i|iiiiiniiiJiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiigiiii|>iii!iiiii<iiii'^^ 
 i<;iiii{iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii{iiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiii"iuiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiii^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ 
 
 ESTABL-ISHED 18T6 
 
 S.T.FISH & CO. 
 
 1S© SOUTH NA/AXER ST. 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 Iiiil COMMISSION MERCHANTS AND \A/HOI_E- 
 
 I I SAI_E DEALERS IN 
 
 II COMB AND EIXTRACXEID 
 II HONEIV AND WAX 
 
 |ii!ui| \A/E ARE BUYERS AND MAKE LIBERAL ADVANCES 
 
 liiiii *^^ CONSIGN M ENTS- CORRESF»OND WITH US, 
 
 I I SU BM |-r-ri N<3 SAMPLES OR EXTTRAC-TED HONEY- 
 
 |||"| REFERENOEIS f-irst ma-tiotmal bank, 
 
 iiiitiii CMICAQO; ALL C3C3MMEROIAL AOEtMOIElS OR A M V 
 
 I I NA/HOLESALE OROOER. 
 
 ■iiiiiiwaiiiiiiiiiiniitnniiiiiiniiiiiiiiitniiii iiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!iiiiiiiniHiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiii;iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiffl|iimnii|iii!!iniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiii^ ■ ■ 
 
 ■iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii' iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii[iijiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiitiiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiJiiiiiiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiiii^ ■ ■ 
 
 -^ ^^ 
 
 "^'"■■^''■"'■-"'ifiMi^^tMLrci. 
 
 BEE SUPPLIES. 
 
 We have one of the best equipped factories in the West. We carry 
 a large stock and the greatest variety of everything needed in the 
 apiary, assuring Best goods and I^owest prices and prompt ship- 
 ment. We want every bee-keeper to have our 
 
 Free niustpated Catalog 
 
 and read the description of the Alternating hives, Ferguson Supers, etc. 
 Write at once for catalog. Address 
 
 Kretcbroer r\f%. Co., Re<I OaH» Iowa 
 
 AGENCIES— Trester Supply Company, Lincoln, Neb. Shugart 
 & Ouren, Council Bluffs, la. Chas. Spangler, Kentland, Ind. 
 
♦ 
 
 Dittmer's 
 
 FOUNDATION 
 
 / 
 
 If 
 
 4^ 
 
 m 
 
 Retail — Wholesale — Jobbing. 
 
 A This foundation is made by an original process, 
 
 1^ tliat absolutely removes every particle of dirt and 
 |\« foreign substance from the wax and produces a 
 ^Y foundation tbat has the rich, clean, light yellow 
 f/ color, and sweet odor natural to the finest, pure 
 1^ wax. It has a thin, clear and transparent base, 
 and is the finest looking foundation produced. 
 Having a very thin base, it has more sheets to the 
 pound than any other make. It is used exclusive- 
 ly by the largest honey producers in the United 
 %t States. It is tough and will not sag, and has es- 
 ff tablished, on its own merits, the reputation of be- 
 it|, ing the best and most desirable in all respects. 
 
 My process and Automatic Machines are my own 
 inventions; which enable me to sell foundation and 
 Work Wax into Foundation for Cash at 
 ''f^' prices that are the lowest. Catalogue giving 
 
 Full Line of Supplies, 
 
 '^'p with prices and samples, free on application. Bees- \ 
 4"| wax wanted. i 
 
 I Gus. Dittmer, Agusta, Wis. | 
 
^ Western Apiarists 1 C. H. W. WEBER, § 
 
 ii'j.*- Successor to Chas. P. Muth and ilijfj! 
 
 Will Save Money in Buying 
 
 Bee Supplies 
 
 From the 
 Pioneer Supply House of Colorado 
 
 BARTELDES&Co., 
 Denver, Colo. 
 
 Illustrated Catalogue with 
 "HINTS TO BEGINNERS," FREE. 
 
 
 
 A. Muth, Dealer in 
 
 Honey and Wax 
 
 Of Any Kind and Description. 
 
 Bee Supplies 
 
 Prompt Service Guaranteed. 
 
 CATALOGUE FREE. 
 
 Send for Same. 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 2146 Central Ave. 
 
 
 ■ .'Si;: 
 
 I Bee-Keepers j A.I.Root | 
 
 Company | 
 
 '.'• Send for our complete M. 
 .'.• illustrated catalog. It i?;* 
 '., IS free. 
 
 'S-! 
 
 10 Vine St. 
 
 We will furnish you S^ 
 
 '•"' with the finest supplies ijil 
 in the world, and make *-'• 
 .'.• prompt shipment. 
 
 ^ G. B. Lewis Co. 
 
 ::* Watertown, Wis. H 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 This is a Branch of the 
 Main Office. 
 
 Same Terms and Arrangement 
 
 Here as Medina, 
 
 Direct Steamship Rates 
 
 To all 
 
 ^§1 North and South Atlantic States. 
 
 m 
 
 *■■:■■■ 
 
 m 
 
 •■;■>■ 
 
 
Walter S. Pouder, Indianapolis, Indiana, 
 Wholesale and Retail Dealer in Bee-Keepers' 
 
 Pure Honey and Beeswax. Headquarters in In- 
 diana and the West for Root's Goods at Root's 
 prices. Pouder Square Flint Glass Honey Jars, 
 the Red Cross Brand. Shipments without break- 
 age. I have recently added to my list of Bottlers' 
 supplies, tin foil caps for the three sizes of Pouder 
 Jars. A circular giving directions how to put up 
 honey in the jars so that it will not granulate, is 
 sent free. If you intend making an exhibit at your 
 Fair I can aid you in every detail. May I have 
 the pleasure of sending you my latest catalog ? 
 
 \\t[ l\ C lO I Indianapolis, Ind. 
 
 WQKAJtr^ .rOuicl&r, 513 Mass. Ave. 
 
 REIDCLOVEIR QUEIEINS 
 
 (IMPERIAL STRAIN) 
 
 SOM 
 
 ;s"riMONiAi_s 
 
 Black River, N. Y. 
 
 Nov. 8, 1902, 
 Mr. A, D. D. WOOD, 
 
 Dear Sir:— 1 think you understand send- 
 ing queens by mail, for they cotne as queens 
 should; looking small, lively and not full of' 
 EGGS. They bred clear up into October — all I 
 could ask 01 queens. I will tell you how they 
 turn out, in 1902. Everything looks promising 
 with them now. 
 
 Yours very truly, GKO. B. HOWE. 
 
 My Red Clover yields from 25 to 50 per cent, 
 more seed since your Red Clovek. bees were 
 put into my neighborhood. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 SAMUEI. TUCKER, Dewitt, Mich. 
 
 Freew^ateRj Ore. Jan. 9, 1902. 
 Mr. A. D. D. WOOD 
 
 Dear Sir: — I wish to say that the 12 
 queens you sent me by mail came in the most 
 excellent condition from their long journey. 
 For the past two weeks their offspring have been 
 flying quite freely. They did excellent work the 
 last part of the season, while for color and gen- 
 tleness they are not excelled in this country. I 
 have been in the bee business for 20 years, and 
 
 I praise them above all bees I ever handled. I 
 lealize I cannot recommend them too highly. 
 Yours Respectfully, C. G. ROGERS. 
 
 Whittemore, Mich., Oct. 21st, 1901. 
 Mr. A. D. D. WOOD, 
 
 Dear sir: — I thought I would write and 
 tell you how I got along with the queens I bought 
 of you. I got them introduced to old colonies 
 that bad swarmed seven days before, cutting out 
 all queen cells. They g awed the queens and 
 bets out in due time, and never even killed any 
 of the workers. The hi.es are full of Italian 
 bees, and I believe they are going to be dandies. 
 I gave them supers 01 unfinished sections, the 
 last week of the honey flow, and they filled them 
 out, and capped the honey as white as any blacks 
 ever could. I am more than pleased with them. 
 EDWARD WII^SON. 
 
 Now friends you can have just such queens. 
 Hundreds of good bee-keepers got them last 
 season. You ought not to be without your share. 
 
 The price will oe, in June, $1.00 for on.^ untest- 
 ed; 12 for $10.00. Tested, $2.00 each; or, 12 for 
 $20.00. After July i, 75c for one untctted, or $1,50 
 for one tested. 
 
 A. D. D. \A/OOD, LANSING, MICH. 
 
^K- fi«r fiK fisr fiC fic fie ^|Sr^i«r^i«r ^isr fi«r ^c^ 
 
 ^ Btlbretl?&5egclkcn ^^ 
 
 ' 3o^^^'^s <^"^ Cotnmtsston Zltercljants ^ 
 
 ■^^ on qom^ ^ 
 
 ■^- ?^ 
 
 ■^' (iar Sots a Specialty) '^ 
 
 ^^ (£rube anb Kcfincb Beestpax i^ 
 
 ^r ^^ 
 
 j^^. Zriaplc Sugar av^ Syrup *^ 
 
 J^4- 265=267 (Srecnmicli St. anb e,2--»k JTturrai} St., HetB york "•^- 
 
 V Twenty years' experience in handling , 
 
 ^1 and selling: Honey. ^ ** 
 
 y^* Our shippers are distributed all over the ^^ 
 
 -^•^ country from the Atlantic to the Pacific. "^s^ 
 
 J^^ If you have any honey or beeswax, and s-^- 
 
 >^^ you want to sell or find a market for it, • Jly 
 
 j^^ write to us. j^ 
 
 l^ If your crop is short and you want to buy ^ 
 
 yf honey, write to us. No harm in correspond- ''!{*' 
 
 "^•^ ing and it may lead to business. $Sr 
 
 ^r ^^ 
 
 ■^h ->' ^i^ ^*^ ji^ yi^ ^i^ j^^i^ jt^* y* y* yii ^^ 
 

 
 Vdaki your i7ipes 
 
 EH keeping 
 
 ^"^ is busy 
 
 =^ work in 
 the summer-time; 
 but the winter 
 brings a leisure 
 that many more 
 bee-keepers might 
 profitably employ 
 in making needed 
 hives, supers o r 
 shipping cases for 
 another year. 
 Power and expen- 
 sive machinery are 
 
 not needed; simply a cozy little shop and a foot-pow- 
 er saw are all that are needed. When a bee-keep- 
 er realizes all this, there is no question as to what 
 saw he shall buy; it is made at the factory of 
 W. F. &JNO. BARNES CO., Rockford, III. 
 The editor of the Review has used one of these " 
 machines, and has no hesitation in saying that it is 
 all that is claimed for it. Any one wht»'buys a ma- 
 chine, and is not entirely satisfied with it, has the 
 privilege of returning it and having his money re- 
 turned. One thing more; there are attachments, 
 such as a scroll-saw, a boring attachment, etc. that 
 can be added at a small cost. Send for catalogue. 
 
 ^ls "f^ 7IF ^^ ff^ ^F ^^"^ ^^' ^'^ ^"^ ^'^ w "i^ 
 
 
 
 if;t»